Roy Morgan’s latest weekly consumer confidence rating has indicated that consumer confidence is down nearly five points, which is lower than September 2009’s figures and the lowest recorded rating since June 2010.

Reasons given for the low confidence rating include recent talks by the RBA of an interest rate rise. According to Gary Morgan there is decreasing confidence about the economic situation in Australia over the next 12 months with 38% (down 6%) of Australians expecting ‘good times’ for the country financially. An unchanged 20% expect Australia to experience a financial bad patch over the next 12 months.

In terms of Australians’ personal finances, 29% (down 4%) say their family is ‘better off financially’ than a year ago compared to 29% (up 4%) that say that their family is ‘worse off financially’ than 12 months ago. Now 39% (down 3%) of Australians expect their family to be ‘better off financially’ this time next year compared to 16% (up 3%) that expect their family to be ‘worse off.’

Of Australians 56% (up 3%) say ‘now is a good time to buy’ major household items compared to 14% (down 3%) that say ‘now is a bad time to buy’ major household items.

“Despite these falls the good news for retailers is that an increasing number of Australians (56%, up 3%) say now is a ‘good time to buy’ major household items,” concludes Morgan.

This weekly Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence rating is based on 1,084 face-to-face interviews conducted Australia-wide with men and women aged 14 and over on the weekend of 18/19 September 2010.