<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>336219</docID> <postdate>2025-01-07 11:37:21</postdate> <headline>Consumer confidence starts year with a bang</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-336220" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/20231210001875928309-original-resized.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="601" /></p> <caption>A senior economist expects stronger hiring in the retail and hospitality sectors in 2025. (Diego Fedele/AAP PHOTOS)</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Poppy Johnston</strong> in Canberra</span></p> <p><strong>New year optimism has infected Australian consumers, pushing confidence levels higher.</strong></p> <p>Consumers were particularly upbeat about their personal finances, the weekly survey from ANZ and Roy Morgan revealed.</p> <p>A confidence boost at the start of a new year is not unusual, though ANZ economist Madeline Dunk said last week's result was among the top three since 2023.</p> <p>Higher interest rates and cost-of-living pain have been weighing on consumer sentiment but the darkest days appear to be over, with the confidence gauge trending higher from the lows of 2023.</p> <p>"We expect the upward momentum to continue through 2025, as tax cuts, rising real wages and eventually rate cuts support household disposable incomes," Ms Dunk said.</p> <p>Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been out spruiking his government's efforts to support struggling households in a pre-election media blitz.</p> <p>"At each and every opportunity, we've looked for ways to address cost-of-living, to address those pressures that are on families," he told Seven's Sunrise.</p> <p>He said the opposition had been "hostile" to his suite of cost-of-living policies, including energy bill rebates, cheaper childcare changes and the rework of the stage three tax cuts.</p> <p>Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor says Australian living standards have been under pressure and are not expected to recover until at least 2030.</p> <p>"That's another two terms of parliament, and this is on the government's own numbers, which the treasurer tried to bury in his mid-year budget update," Mr Taylor told ABC radio on Tuesday.</p> <p>Were the coalition to return to power, he promised a focus on business investment to drive productivity and improve real incomes.</p> <p>The federal election must be held by May at the latest.</p> <p>While inflation is expected to moderate further and real incomes improve, Australia's jobs market is expected to weaken a little over the course of 2025 as growth remains fairly fragile.</p> <p>SEEK senior economist Blair Chapman said the jobs market was still stabilising after the post-COVID-19 pandemic hiring boom.</p> <p>Advertising on the jobs marketplace was weaker towards the end of 2024 compared to earlier in the year, he said, reflecting normalising labour demand easing from a very high base.</p> <p>But hiring in the care economy, including jobs in health care and child care, was unlikely to slow down.</p> <p>"That ongoing demand for care workers isn't going away and that's really continuing to drive employment - and that's going to continue well into 2025," Mr Chapman said.</p> <p>He predicted stronger hiring in consumer-facing sectors, such as hospitality and retail, as widely-expected interest rate rate cuts support consumer spending.</p> <p>The tech sector was similarly expected to clock a stronger year as businesses looked to make the most of generative artificial intelligence and embraced digital transformation.</p> </body>