Black Friday helping short-term optimism, but long-term sentiment also rising
Australian consumers are becoming more optimistic on the nation’s economy, with the latest ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence survey rising 2.9 points to 87.1 for the week of November 18–24.
This marks the highest reading since early September.
The index is now 1.4 points higher than the same period last year and slightly above the 2025 weekly average of 86.4.
Consumer confidence improved across most states, including New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, and South Australia, though sentiment in Queensland bucked the trend and declined.
The Black Friday shopping period has helped to lift confidence, with the proportion of Australians who believe now is a good time to buy major household items jumping three percentage points to 27%, while those who felt it was a bad time fell to 33%.
This marks the strongest reading for the category since early August.
ANZ economist Sophia Angala added: “Weekly inflation expectations lifted to its highest rate since December 2023. Last week’s rise comes ahead of the first release of the full monthly CPI for October (due 26 November), which we expect to show slight disinflation compared to September.”
While the short-term economic outlook sentiment has improved, with 10% of Australians expecting ‘good times’ in the year ahead, up one point, long-term sentiment also rose one point to 11%, as fewer respondents anticipate ‘bad times’ over the next five years.
Today’s Westpac Nowcast report reinforces this uplift in consumer sentiment, showing that the economy gained momentum through late 2024 and into this year’s third quarter.
The report shows estimated GDP growth of around 0.7% for the September quarter, suggesting the “soggy” first-quarter outcome “was more noise than signal”.
