Despite cost of living pressures continuing to hurt Western Australian household budgets, consumer confidence has held steady to begin 2024. This is on the back of a significant fall in concern around interest rates, with the cash rate remaining unchanged over the quarter and discussion around the timing of the first rate cut heating up.
Concerns around international trade tensions have also eased slightly over the March quarter, further supporting a steady outlook in the face of elevated living costs.
The main support to consumer sentiment remains the strong jobs market, however this has reduced slightly since last quarter as labour market conditions continue to loosen – indeed, Western Australia’s unemployment rate has now drifted upwards to its highest reading in just over two years, now sitting at 4.2% as of January.
In this edition of CCIWA’s Consumer Confidence Survey we asked Western Australians how much of their savings they have used to cover higher costs of living, if their living arrangement preferences have changed post pandemic, whether they are looking for a new job and what influences their consumer brand preferences.
