The Australian dollar declined for a fourth day against the greenback on Thursday after reports from Westpac revealed consumer sentiment dropped to its lowest since May last year while home loans dropped.
The Australian dollar traded 0.18% lower at $0.8958 at the time of writing, following the release, after trading close to $0.8967 earlier in the session.
Australia’s consumer sentiment index dropped 0.7% to 99.5 points in March, the lowest level since May last year and compared to the previous reading of 100.2 points seen in February, according to the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment gauge. A figure below the 100 mark indicates more consumers were pessimistic than optimists.
“The degree of concern around jobs is very high,” Westpac senior economist Mathew Hassan said in the statement on Wednesday. “We retain our view that rates will remain unchanged over the first half of 2014, but with two further 25bp rate cuts in the second half.”He also added “More recent falls though have had a very clear theme centering on a sharp loss of confidence in the economic outlook and escalating job-loss fears.”
The latest figures from the job market revealed unemployment climbed to a ten-year high of 6% in January, while the participation rate came in at an eight-year low of 64.5%. The labour market report for February is expected to be released on Thursday, with the jobless rate and participation rate forecasted to remain unchanged.
The sub-index tracking consumer which tracks the views on the outlook conditions over the next year fell 4%, following the fall of 7.1% seen in February, reports from Westpac confirmed.
Meanwhile in the housing sector, the number of loans granted to purchase or build homes was unchanged in January from the previous month, after it dropped by 3.3% from December, the statistics bureau said today.
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