{"id":450555,"date":"2026-05-29T05:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T05:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/450555\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T05:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T05:04:14","slug":"consumer-confidence-lifts-but-still-in-negative-territory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/450555\/","title":{"rendered":"Consumer confidence lifts, but still in negative territory"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ANZ<\/p>\n

\nANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner.
\nPhoto: ABC \/ Luke Bowden\n<\/p>\n

Consumer confidence lifted to 86.5 points in May from 80.3 in April
\n A net negative 20 percent of households think it is a good time to make a major purchase
\n A net 12 percent expect to be better off this time next year, up from last month’s net 3 percent
\n A net negative 25 percent of consumers feel worse off now, up from negative 31 percent last month
\n Consumers expect inflation to be 5.3 percent over the next two years <\/p>\n

Consumer confidence has lifted off recent lows in May<\/a>, although households remain firmly pessimistic and continue to rein in spending.<\/p>\n

The ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Index rose six points to 86.5, recovering from April’s sharp drop but still well below the neutral 100 mark that separates optimism from pessimism.<\/p>\n

While most measures improved, sentiment remains subdued, with many households still worried about the broader economic outlook and their own financial position.<\/p>\n

A net 25 percent of respondents said they were worse off than a year ago, highlighting ongoing pressure on household budgets.<\/p>\n

ANZ said the modest rebound appeared to be linked to a small fall in petrol prices during the month, offering some relief after recent rises<\/a> tied to global uncertainty.<\/p>\n

However, persistently low readings – particularly for whether it is a good time to buy a major household item – suggest discretionary spending remained under pressure, which is bad news for retailers.<\/p>\n

However, confidence remained well below its January peak, reflecting continued concern about inflation, interest rates and the economic outlook.<\/p>\n

Regionally, Wellington remained the most downbeat part of the country, while Auckland – despite a sharp fall earlier in the year – was still among the more confident regions, along with the South Island, excluding Canterbury.<\/p>\n

House price expectations also edged lower, with Canterbury the most optimistic at 3.2 percent and Wellington the weakest at 1.5 percent.<\/p>\n

Chief economist Sharon Zollner said recent years have shown that consumers “hate inflation”, with households quick to pull back spending when costs rise.<\/p>\n

Although inflation expectations eased in May, ANZ expected the Reserve Bank will begin raising interest rates from July as it looks to bring inflation under control.<\/p>\n

Higher borrowing costs, alongside lingering geopolitical uncertainty, are likely to keep consumer confidence fragile in the months ahead.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero, a daily newsletter<\/a> curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner. Photo: ABC \/ Luke Bowden Consumer confidence lifted to 86.5 points in May…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[48,138,47,219,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":["post-450555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-audio","tag-business","tag-current-affairs","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}