A confident start for 2018

Both everyday Australians and the nation’s business sector are enjoying the strongest level of confidence since the end of the mining boom, according to research from Roy Morgan.

Results from both the ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence report and the Roy Morgan Business Confidence report indicated a level of confidence in the March quarter of 2018 that hadn’t been experienced since 2013 for consumers and 2014 for businesses.

Breaking down these results, while Roy Morgan found consumer confidence to currently be up across the board, the demographic with the greatest jump was found to be Generation Y, up 8.6 points from 120.1 in the March quarter 2017 to 128.7 in the March 2018 quarter – the highest level of consumer confidence since the March 2011 quarter.

Even the demographic that recorded the lowest confidence, Baby Boomers, still saw an increase of 1.5 points from 104.8 in the March 2017 quarter to 106.3 in the March 2018 quarter – the highest level of consumer confidence since the March 2014 quarter.

The strength of Australian business confidence was found to be primarily driven by larger businesses. Businesses with turnovers of $5-$50 million saw confidence up 24.39 points on the same time last year, reaching 151.6. This is almost as strong as the 151.8 confidence recorded for businesses with an annual turnover of $50 million and up, which saw an improvement of 17.7 points on the same quarter last year.

The Australian states with the strongest business confidence were found to be New South Wales (up 8.7 points to 124.9), South Australia (up 17.4 points to 136.3) and Western Australia (up 23.1 points to 120.1).

Roy Morgan CEO, Michele Levine, said that the current level of confidence in the nation’s economy at both a consumer and a business level could play a role in how the upcoming federal budget may be received.

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