Millennials in Western Australia have reportedly been spending less than older generations, as shown in a report by Bankwest.
The bank’s Spend Trends report showed that the transaction volumes of Millennials were flatlining in September. Peter Bouhlas (pictured), Bankwest’s general manager of products and digital services, had said that there was a consistent trend where young Western Australians were “facing into the pressures of economic headwinds.”
While Millennials were spending less than Boomers and Gen X, the data showed that they were paying nearly 10% more on average for the same volume of transactions compared to the previous year.
“That makes sense when considering Millennials would more likely have higher levels of debt relative to income, compared to Gen X and Baby Boomers, both of whom the figures suggest are less affected by current conditions,” Bouhlas said.
Compared to Gen X and Baby Boomers which had an increase in their spending trends year-over-year with 1.7% and 4.0% respectively, Millennials in Western Australia only had a 0.2% increase in their volume of transactions.
There was also a 5.2% decrease in the number of Millennial transactions year-over-year while this was -4.6% for Gen X and -3.3% for Boomers. In the value of their transactions year-over-year, Millennials’ figures had grown by 8.6% even as they had a smaller number of transaction volumes and customer spending.
The data also showed that the year-over-year figures of Millennials were lessening each month while it had only grown for Gen X and Boomers when compared to the Spend Trends data in August.
The year-over-year transaction volumes of Gen X grew to 1.7% in September from 1.1% in August. For Boomers, it was 2.8% in August and 4% in September while Millennials saw a decline from 0.4% to 0.2%.
“While older Western Australians appear less affected, the Spend Trends data shows that fewer Gen X and Baby Boomers are spending compared to a year ago, indicating there are still pressures being felt by some,” said Bouhlas.
There was a disparity found between the growth in the average value and the volume of transactions which showed the pressures when it comes to the cost of living. This disparity averaged at 6% across the 25 sectors that were analysed with the travel industry taking the lead in the cost decline.
Travel agencies saw a 28% year-over-year growth in their volume of transactions while their average transaction value had remained unchanged from what was seen in 2022. Airline volumes saw an increase by 6% while transaction value saw a 6% decrease.
“The disparity between declining or slowing volumes of transactions and the average value of transactions will undoubtedly be weighing on many people in the community, as they face having to pay more for the same or less,” said Bouhlas.
Bankwest’s Spend Trends report tracked the credit and debit activity of Western Australian customers in order to identify the insights concerning the responses of communities to the conditions of the economy.
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