Westpac Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index was unchanged at 78.5 in March.
This is near its historic lows for this indicator series.
Some of the key points noted by Westpac:
- Confidence in the labour market starting to wane.
- Areas of most concern remain: inflation; interest rates; and the economy.
- Homebuyer sentiment drops sharply, to its weakest level since 1989.
- Surprisingly there has been an 8.6% lift in house price expectations.
Meanwhile the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Unemployment Expectations Index rose a further 2.9% in March
- prior was a jump of 10.6% in February
- The higher this index the greater expectation that unemployment will rise in the year ahead
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Terrible numbers.
The Reserve Bank of Australia next meet on April 4 and the case for the Bank leaving its cash rate unchanged at this meeting is firming up, despite the rate being well under the current rate of CPI inflation:
