Consumers Brace for Belt-Tightening Measures

With rising utility bills and the fear of job losses all across the country, the CLSA yearly survey among consumers predicted that many households would continue to adapt frugal measures to make ends meet.

Spending for non-essential items among consumers will also most likely be kept at minimum in the coming year.

According to the Commonwealth Bank, assets like houses and lands have been rising at a slower pace. These, in turn, are affecting consumer confidence as the reality is house prices have been weak since the collapse of the global economy.

The CLSA survey was conducted among 1400 households. The results showed 55 percent of the respondents said that they had to cut back on spending. Half of the respondents also say that their biggest concern was the expenses for utility bills.

Many have also been saving a part of their income, while spending for non-essentials only if they receive an increase in wages.

Many households were also concerned about their debt levels, which increased to 22 percent from 17 percent in the previous year.

The rate for jobless Australians is invariably low at 5.2 percent but some workers are still apprehensive that they will lose their jobs if the global economy doesn’t shape up.

An analyst said credit card usage is expected to slow down. Economists said, however, that consumer spending volume grew 4.2 percent last March and contributed to the growth of the economy for that quarter alone.