In recent months, commentators and economists have pointed to a divergence between consumer sentiment and business confidence in Australia during 2017. Surveys indicated business confidence has been trending up since 2013, while measures of consumer sentiment have been bouncing around a level just on the pessimistic side of neutral.
According to the latest Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index, households were more optimistic than a month ago as the Index reading increased from 97.9 in September to 101.4 in October. Any reading below 100 indicates the number of consumers who are pessimistic is greater than the number of consumers who are optimistic. The long-term average reading is just over 101.
