Australian consumers wary on lockdown reimplementation: survey

July had seen Australia’s consumer sentiment declining. This was mainly from the reimplementation of coronavirus-related lockdowns in the country’s second-largest city, completely dragging consumers’ confidence after two months of gain.  

The Westpac-Melbourne Institute index of consumer sentiment dropped a total of 6.1% in July. This followed after the index recorded a 6.3% increase in June. In addition to this, April witnessed the index hitting its lowest level as lockdowns gripped the land down under. However, it managed to recover in May after restrictions were lifted.

The said decline left the index down 8.9% in the same period last year at 87.9. This weak reading suggests that pessimist consumers outnumbered optimists by some margin. Moreover, Victoria’s sentiment index fell 10.4% in July from June. But excluding Victoria’s tally, the rest of the country dropped milder with a 4.5% decline