Monthly measure of Australian consumer sentiment slides further, down 9.5% m/m to 79.5
- prior -6.1% m/m to 87.9
Under 100 on this indicator means pessimism amongst consumers outweighs optimism. The indicator worsened again in August.
Westpac:
- "Consumers across the nation appear to have been rattled by the developments in Victoria and fear that other states may also succumb to the 'second wave' outbreak"
WPAC are optimistic:
- "Our view is that these fears are likely to have become overblown. While consumers are right to be concerned, virus risks still look low outside Victoria."
I hesitate to agree with WPAC on the optimism but given what has happened in the state of Victoria other state governments will act in a much quicker manner to address outbreaks and not let them mushroom into the thousands of cases that have happened in the 2nd wave in Victoria.
While NZ is not part of Australia the time lag between speculative reports of an outbreak and the imposition of new restrictions in NZ took around 8 hours! If the restrictions are effective this may become a rapid response model and prolonged shut down can be avoided. We are yet to see how it works out of course.
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Background to this is here:
Melbourne's level 4 lock down includes a curfew
