Australia economy 'remarkable' Covid comeback: Consumer confidence makes strong gains

Australians have a new spring in their step after last week’s national accounts, which Prime Minister Scott Morrison called “remarkable”.

The weekly ANZ Roy Morgan consumer confidence index – a guide to future household spending – rose 1.5 percent, with four of its five sub-indices posting strong gains.

David Plank, head of ANZ’s Australian economics department, said the rise was likely in response to national accounts for the December quarter, which showed the economy had grown above 3% for the first time in two quarters.

It also chimed with other numbers from last week, which showed job vacancies rose 13.4 percent in February, suggesting more strong job gains are possible in the coming months.

Mr Morrison told a conference on Tuesday the national accounts highlight the “remarkable comeback” of the economy, which grew 3.1 percent in the December quarter, led by the private sector, and outperformed the G7 countries and the OECD average.

“Household consumption has been strong, supported by confident Australian consumers, whose incomes have been boosted by the crisis and who have also increased retail spending,” he said at the Australian Financial Review Business Summit in Sydney.

The ANZ confidence survey showed that views of people’s current financial situation rose 1.5 percent after a two-week decline, while “future financial conditions” improved 1.1 percent.

At the same time, “current economic conditions” rose 3.6 percent and “future economic conditions” posted a 2.1 percent increase – nearly reversing the previous week’s 2.4 percent drop.

However, views on “time to buy an essential household item” fell 0.8 percent.