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Satish Ranchhod: Westpac senior economist on consumer confidence picking up · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks. There'd be
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  Speaker 2: Consumer Confidence This is good News is on the app
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  Speaker 2: even with the cost of living front of mine. The
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  Speaker 2: latest index shows that consumer confidence went up nine points
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  Speaker 2: in September. But even though it's up, more people are
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  Speaker 2: still pessimistic than optimistic. Senior economists at Westpac Satish ranshoterers
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  Speaker 2: with us.
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  Speaker 3: Now Hey, Satish, great to talk Heather, how are you.
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  Speaker 2: I'm very well, thank you. Now this is rather than
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  Speaker 2: a change in circumstances, this is hope that's pushing it up, right.
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  Speaker 3: I think that's exactly it. Household there still think a
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  Speaker 3: lot of pressure on their finances, but the optimistic that
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  Speaker 3: their financial position is going to improve over the year ahead.
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  Speaker 3: And I think there's a good chance for that for
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  Speaker 3: a lot of households.
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  Speaker 2: Do you expect, because I mean it's been a little
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  Speaker 2: bit voluntar volatile lately, do you expect that the track
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  Speaker 2: from here is just up.
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  Speaker 3: I think we're going to see some of those big
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  Speaker 3: pressures that households have been dealing with, especially high interest rates,
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  Speaker 3: coming down over the coming months. And I think for
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  Speaker 3: a lot of households. That does mean their financial position
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  Speaker 3: is going to improve as the go into twenty twenty five,
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  Speaker 3: but it's going to take a while for them to
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  Speaker 3: see it in their back pockets.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So it is there a possibility that this is
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  Speaker 2: a philip and that people then realize actually, it's going
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  Speaker 2: to have no real impact in the short term on
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  Speaker 2: their finances and so they dip again. Is that a possibility?
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  Speaker 3: I mean, I think there's a little bit of a
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  Speaker 3: chance at households start to feel a little bit cautious
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  Speaker 3: as it takes a while to feed through, but increasingly
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  Speaker 3: it does look like those borrowing rates are coming down,
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  Speaker 3: inflation's coming back. I think they're going to start to
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  Speaker 3: feel a bit more optimistic going into twenty twenty five.
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  Speaker 3: Some of those headwindes have been pretty tough the last
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  Speaker 3: few years, and there's a big relief now coming through.
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  Speaker 3: It's just going to take a while to show up.
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  Speaker 2: Why is it that women are so much more piessimistic
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  Speaker 2: than men.
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  Speaker 3: I think in a lot of families there's still one
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  Speaker 3: family member who's got a close eye on the finances,
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  Speaker 3: and for many New Zealand families, it does tend to
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  Speaker 3: be a woman, and I think if you're confronted by
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  Speaker 3: those cost pressures, especially at the supermarket or when you're
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  Speaker 3: paying the mortgage, that's likely to be a big drag
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  Speaker 3: on confidence. And women of course often responsible for a
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  Speaker 3: lot of the big spending decisions made by many.
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  Speaker 2: How yeah, probably explains today, Satish, Thank you very much.
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  Speaker 2: Listen to the ladies. Satish Ranshot, senior economist at wispek.
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