Consumers less pessimistic

The mid-August Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence rating is 94.9 points, up 7.1 points from early August and the highest since mid April. This jump is driven by more people feeling more optimistic about their own financial situation in the year ahead. Now, half of us say they expect to be better off financially at this time next year while only 25% expect to be worse off financially. New Zealanders are more positive about the next five years with 42% (up 6%) expecting good times for their economy as a whole and 31% (down 6%) expecting bad times. We are, however, are still quite negative about our economy over the next 12 months. Most (55% - down 5%) are expecting bad times, while only 25% (up 6%) look forward to good times.  And, there is still a majority of New Zealanders - 51% - who feel that their family is worse off financially than this time last year, while only 28% say that they are financially better off than a year ago. A particular area of concern for retailers in this survey is that fewer people (39% - down 3%) say now is a good time to buy major household items, and 47% (up 1%) believing now is a bad time to buy major household items.