<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>326434</docID> <postdate>2024-08-13 11:08:40</postdate> <headline>Consumer confidence gains ground as rates kept on hold</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-326435" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/20190515001399429640-original-resized.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="591" /></p> <caption>Tax relief and interest rates may be feeding into improved attitudes towards household incomes. (Dan Peled/AAP PHOTOS)</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Poppy Johnston</strong> in Canberra</span></p> <p><strong>Confidence is gradually returning to Australian consumers, with interest rates on hold and tax relief potentially brightening the mood.</strong></p> <p>ANZ and Roy Morgan's weekly confidence survey has been recovering recently after tracking well below long-run averages amid the cost-of-living crisis, with the overall index up another 2.6 points last week.</p> <p>At 83.9 points, the index is still below the monthly average since 1990 of 110.2.</p> <p>ANZ economist Madeline Dunk highlighted a particularly big confidence jump when households were queried about financial conditions.</p> <p>"The rise may be linked to the Reserve Bank of Australia decision to keep rates on hold last week," Ms Dunk said.</p> <p>Tax relief that kicked in on July 1 may also be feeding into improved attitudes towards household incomes, she suggested.</p> <p>Workers have also logged robust pay growth, with the Australian Bureau of Statistics wage price index, due on Tuesday, expected to stay elevated though tapering a little on an annual basis.</p> <p>Financial market economists expect a further weakening in the year to the end of June, with ANZ pointing to a rise of four per cent, down from 4.1 per cent in March.</p> <p>But on a quarterly basis, the bank's economic team is tipping a 0.9 per cent rise, up from 0.8 per cent in the March quarter, to reflect seasonal factors as well as a pick up in newly-approved enterprise bargaining agreements.</p> <p>The bureau's wage price index will indicate the pace of underlying price pressures in the labour market at a critical point in the central bank's price fight.</p> <p>The RBA kept interest rates on hold at its August board meeting and warned inflation was still high.</p> <p>Fresh surveying of human resources professionals has painted a mixed picture of the labour market, with employment intentions strong and on the rise – particularly in the public sector.</p> <p>At the same time, more firms expected to make redundancies, according to the Australian HR Institute's quarterly outlook report.</p> <p>Among employers, 27 per cent said they planned to make redundancies, up from 23 per cent in the previous quarter.</p> <p>AHRI chief executive Sarah McCann-Bartlett said the figures could be driven by restructuring rather than job cuts as organisations pursued digitisation and AI opportunities to eke out productivity gains.</p> <p>"The redundancy figures could therefore be about restructuring and preparing for the future rather than cost savings," she said.</p> </body>