NAB Quarterly Australian Consumer Anxiety Index: December 2013. Consumer anxiety rises amid ongoing weakness in the domestic economy.

Consumer anxiety rose to 61.5 points in Q4 (61.1 in Q3). With the labour market softening, anxiety over job security has started climbing (particularly in WA and Victoria) although it still rates as the lowest concern overall. Instead, consumers are still most worried about the cost of living (but marginally less so than in Q3).

The level of anxiety related to health and government policy was up slightly and unchanged for ability to fund retirement. Among other key findings:

• Victorian consumers are most anxious
• women are now significantly more anxious than men (especially ability to fund retirement, job security, cost of living and health)
• anxiety rose most for 30-49 year olds
• anxiety was higher for those in part time employment and working in “other” or sales/clerical jobs.

In a Special Report (“Factors Impacting Cost of Living”) also released today, we take a closer look at the key drivers of cost of living pressures. Overall, the most important influences on higher cost of living include: utility bills, education and housing costs. In contrast, travel/holiday costs and entertainment were not considered to have a negative impact on the cost of living.

For further analysis download the full report.

• NAB Quarterly Australian Consumer Anxiety Index – Q4 2013 (PDF, 195KB)
• NAB Quarterly Australian Consumer Anxiety Index – Q4 2013 Special Report: Factors Impacting Cost of Living (PDF, 62KB)