Australian consumer confidence remains deeply subdued, edging lower in early May despite some improvement in households’ own financial outlook and a still‑solid labour market.
The latest ANZ‑Roy Morgan survey shows confidence fell 0.6 points to 67.2 in the week to 3 May, the seventh‑lowest reading in the history of the index and well below readings at the same time a year earlier. Confidence is also around five points under the 2026 weekly average so far.
Only 16% of Australians now say their family is better off financially than a year ago, while 54% feel worse off.
Views on the year ahead are also negative, with 20% expecting to be better off and 43% expecting to be worse off. A net majority of respondents also think now is a bad time to buy major household items.
ANZ economist Sophia Angala (pictured left) said there had been “a slight easing in ANZ‑Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence last week, with the headline index down 0.6pts to 67.2pts.” Angala noted that “the series remains near its lowest level since the series began in 1973”.
She pointed to weaker confidence in economic conditions following the latest inflation data, with underlying CPI still above the Reserve Bank’s 2–3% target band and further price pressures expected from higher fuel and other costs.
Conditions are even more downbeat in the corporate sector. Roy Morgan’s separate business survey shows confidence fell 14.2 points in April to 76.5 – a new record low for the series and 0.4 points below the previous trough in April 2020 at the start of the COVID‑19 pandemic.
Business confidence has now dropped 28.5 points since December 2025. The April result was driven by sharp falls in expectations for the economy over both the next 12 months and the next five years, as well as a weaker view on whether it is a good time to invest in growing the business.
Only 37.2% of firms now expect “good times” for the Australian economy over the next year, compared with 61.3% who expect “bad times”. Over a five‑year horizon, just 18.7% expect good times while 73.4% anticipate bad times – record levels for both indicators.
“Roy Morgan Business Confidence plunged 14.2pts to a record low of only 76.5 in April, just below the previous record low of 76.9 reached in April 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Roy Morgan chief executive Michele Levine (pictured right) said.
Levine noted that falls intensified after the latest escalation of conflict in the Middle East, as concerns about energy prices and inflation added to uncertainty.
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