Pessimists outnumber optimists as sentiment falls

Australian consumer confidence fell in April, with the Westpac/Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment down 1.6% to 94.5 in April.

An index level of under 100 indicates that pessimists outnumber optimists.

Westpac’s chief economist Bill Evans says the result is a mild surprise.

“Apart from last year’s lows and the March 2008 to May 2009 period, when households feared a recession associated with the global financial crisis, we have to go all the way back to 2001 following the bursting of the dotcom bubble and the post-Olympics/post-GST slowdown to find sustained lower readings,” Evans says.

The fall in April follows a 5.0% drop in March.

“The number of optimists exceeded that of pessimists for a second consecutive month,” the report states.