Sydney: A change in prime minister has helped boost Australian consumer confidence, a survey said on Tuesday.The ANZ/Roy Morgan weekly consumer confidence index rose 8.7 percent in the week Malcolm Turnbull became prime minister after three weeks of falls in the index, Xinhua news agency reported.
The change in prime minister was likely the reason for the lift in confidence, ANZ chief economist Warren Hogan said in a statement. "The sharp jump in consumer confidence is a clear vote of confidence in the new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull," he said.
But the new prime minister would need to deliver on the economy to maintain the confidence, Hogan said.
"The challenge for the prime minister is to effectively communicate that changes to the way the economy operates are in the community's interest and necessary to raise incomes, create high-value jobs, and sustain investment," he said.
Australian consumer confidence jumped to 114.5 points last week, according to a regular index compiled by ANZ Banking Group, up from 105.3 the previous week. That 8.9 per cent leap was the biggest on record.
This coincided with Malcolm Turnbull, a former lawyer, banker and businessman, toppling Tony Abbott in a ballot for the leadership of the Liberal party, which governs the nation as part of a coalition with the National Party.
Mr Turnbull's background may have helped give consumers a bit more optimism about the outlook for the Australian economy. Within the sub-components of the ANZ survey, respondents saw the financial situation compared to a year ago as slightly better, up 2.5 points from last week to 109.9, and scored the financial situation a year from now at 126.5, an improvement of 5.3 points.
The index for the economy a year ahead leap 21.1 points to 102.8. For the economy five years from now, the index rose 13 points to 110.1. Respondents also warmed on the idea of buying a large household item, with the index up 3.7 points to 123.1.
That said, Mr Turnbull and the Coalition still has a monumental task in buttressing the economy from a slowdown in emerging markets, primarily China, as Australia's mining investment boom winds down. For the moment, consumers are upbeat on what he and his new-look cabinet could deliver.
Although there may have been criticism about the high churn of Australian politics, the electorate seems to have warmed to the new PM quickly, with the most recent polls showing the Coalition swinging back to lead Labor as the preferred party.
Mr Turnbull is already beating Labor leader Bill Shorten as preferred prime minister, with 55 per cent to 21 per cent, representing an 18 percentage point improvement over Mr Abbott's final rating, and a 20 percentage point slump for Mr Shorten.
