Australia: Unsettled start for consumers - Westpac

According to analysts at Westpac, the first Red Book of 2019 for Australian economy shows an unsettled start for consumers.

Key Quotes

“The usual holiday sentiment bump failed to materialise this year, with the Westpac–Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index, which is adjusted to remove this January feel-good factor, slipping back into pessimistic territory for the first time since late 2017.”

“The pessimism is only ‘slight’ – the January index read of 99.6 is arguably more neutral than downbeat – but the start to the new year is still clearly a weak one.”