Australian households are stable notwithstanding many risks

The weekly indicator of consumer confidence from ANZ rallied by 0.7% to 121.6 the previous week, which turns out to be the highest level since the end of January, when the world stock markets reached their maximum. The result indicates a sixth straight week of surge.

It drops a hint that notwithstanding the numerous problems associated with the prospects for consumption, Australian households are quite good now.

Some of the recent successes in consumer confidence can be explained by the reduction of income tax, announced in the federal budget earlier this month.

However, the previous week's surge occurred notwithstanding a less positive round of data on wages and employment.

Despite this, the sub-index of views on household finances managed to ascend by 2% over the next 12 months to a three-month maximum of 110.1. Besides this, views on future financial conditions rallied for the second week in a row, and both readings are still above their long-term average.

Views on a more considerable economic surge dived a bit, but measures for both current and future economic conditions went down steeply in a week.

The positive trend is encouraging, considering that Australian households keep focusing on the problem of high household debt in the conditions of cooling house prices. Moreover, they are trying to do this with higher energy costs provoked by the recent leap in gasoline prices, while wage surge remains close to record minimums.

By the way, ANZ analysis also pointed to a glimmer of hope in dismal salary data last week in the form of higher bonus payments.

Simultaneously, data from the labor market demonstrated a leap in unemployment, which is a sign of an excessive recession that does not bode well for higher wages.

However, updated for weekly volatility, trend data clearly indicate that Australian households are starting to feel more optimistic.