Australian consumers losing confidence in economy: survey

Consumers in Australia are losing confidence in the nation's economy and the job market, a MasterCard survey showed on Monday.

The latest edition of the regular survey by MasterCard showed local consumer confidence fell in the six months to the end of April.

The credit card provider said people were spending less and saving more.

According to the survey, the consumer confidence index fell to 63.1 points from 74.1 points six months earlier.

A score of zero represents absolute pessimism, while 100 indicates absolute optimism, 50 is neutral.

The index measures confidence level and expectations for the coming six months in the key areas of economy, employment, the stock market, regular income and quality of life.

The fall in Australian consumer confidence index was mainly due to more pessimism on two factors -- the economy (down from 66.7 points to 61.8) and employment (down from 70.7 points to 65.9), the survey showed.

MasterCard Australia country manager Andrew Cartwright said the

findings support weaker retail sector data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Source:Xinhua

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