Consumers display caution

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 01:19:57 +0000

Dwelling starts at six-year

Consumer sentiment; New car sales; Dwelling starts

The Westpac/Melbourne Institute index of consumer confidence eased in the latest month. The index fell by 5.0 per cent to a three-month low of 113.2 in September. Aussie consumers believe that bank deposits are the wisest place for savings (30.7 per cent of respondents), followed by paying debt (21.0 per cent).
Australian new car sales rose for the first time in four months, up by 0.3 per cent in August after a 2.6 per cent fall in July. Passenger car sales fell for the fourth straight month, down by 0.2 per cent in August.
Sales of SUV’s eased by 2.1 per cent in August. However over the past year more than 225,000 SUV have been sold – the best result in records going back 16 years.
Australian dwelling starts have risen for the fourth straight quarter, lifting by 0.8 per cent in the June quarter. The lift in dwelling starts was dominated by the public sector, rising by 3.9 per cent, while private sector starts rose by only 0.4 per cent. In the June quarter, starts rose in only three of the eight states and territories.
In seasonally adjusted terms work started on 44,899 dwellings in the quarter – the biggest quarterly result in six years