23 Jul 2010

Consumer confidence slipping

12:52 pm on 23 July 2010

The spending surge the retail sector has been hoping for ahead of the hike in the goods and services tax (GST) is in danger of becoming a non-event, as consumer confidence continues to ebb.

The latest ANZ Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence index fell 6 points to 115 in July. A reading over 100 indicates optimists outnumber pessimists.

While July's index is still positive, it's the lowest reading in almost a year.

ANZ head of market economics and strategy Khoon Goh says fewer people now believe it's a good time to buy big ticket items, possibly due to uncertainty over the global economy.

Mr Goh says when looking at the year ahead, consumer sentiment has fallen the most since October 2008, the height of the world financial crisis.

However, Noel Leeming Group chief executive John Journee sees no such trend, in fact, he says, customers are continuing to spend on big ticket items like whiteware and televisions and the market for cutting-edge electronics is particularly buoyant.