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Brokers may have to settle for reduced volumes between now and the federal Budget if a new survey is any guide.
The ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Index saw a drop of 4.4 per cent for the week ending April 27.
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Consumer confidence has now dropped below the long-run average after spending much of the past three months see-sawing at around that level.
The fall in confidence was attributed to news reports about spending cuts that have been forecast for the upcoming Budget.
“Given that consumer confidence can react strongly to expectations around government policy… it is possible that confidence could remain volatile in the weeks around the 13 May Budget,” the report said.
The survey found an 11.4 per cent week-on-week decline in people’s perceptions of how economic conditions would look next year.
There was also a 4.6 per cent fall in perceptions of how they would look in five years' time.
In addition, there was a 3.7 per cent decline in how people perceived their current financial situation compared with a year ago.
ANZ said, however, that it still expected household consumption to increase by 3 per cent in real terms both this year and the next.
