SYDNEY: Australia’s consumer confidence has tumbled in April to a six-month low as President Donald Trump’s barrage of tariffs and the accompanying slump in stock markets hit households hard.
Sentiment dropped 6% to 90.1 points, a Westpac Banking Corp survey showed yesterday.
It said sentiment slumped 10% among respondents surveyed after the announcement of the US tariffs.
“Consumers are showing deepening unease about developments abroad,” Matthew Hassan, Westpac’s head of Australian macro forecasting, said in a statement.
“Sentiment weakened sharply over the course of the survey week, with steep falls following the ‘reciprocal tariffs’ announced by Trump on April 2.”
Trump slapped hefty tariffs on countries across the world, sparking upheaval in financial markets from equities to currencies and bonds.
Traders are now fully pricing in four interest-rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of Australia this year with a good chance of a super-sized 50-basis-point move as soon as next month.
“The scale and breadth of tariff increases, which included a 10% tariff on Australian goods, came as a major surprise,” Hassan said. “With the situation still deteriorating, there is a clear risk of more significant sentiment declines.
“All component indexes deteriorated in April,” Hassan added. — Bloomberg
