New Zealand: Consumer confidence falls in November
The ANZ-Roy Morgan consumer confidence indicator fell to 80.7 in November from 85.4 in October. Therefore, the index moved further below the 100-threshold that separates optimism from pessimism among consumers.
In November, households expectations of their financial situation in one year view worsened, as did their expectations over the general economic situations in five years view and their willingness to buy big-ticket items.
Commenting on the release, Sharon Zollner, chief economist at ANZ, stated:
“At its Monetary Policy Statement this week the Reserve Bank made it clear that they need to see much lower spending growth in order to bring down persistently high inflation. So far, theyve been struggling to get traction with households who have been feeling confident about the income side of the equation. But the RBNZ upped the freak-out factor considerably this week with their forecasts of much higher interest rates, much lower growth, and unemployment reaching 5.7%. The reverberations of that seem likely to show up in the data relatively quickly.”