Consumer confidence up

Consumers are the most confident they have been for three years, according to the ANZ Roy Morgan poll.

The monthly survey recorded its steepest increase this month since bottoming out in March last year.

Responses to the survey's questions about future conditions are at an all-time high since the survey began in 2004, and remain much more optimistic than those relating to current conditions. But the latter have improved too and are back to levels that portend a willingness to open the wallet, ANZ chief economist Cameron Bagrie said.

"It does look like we are turning the corner but we are still getting mixed signs from the data. It's patchy." Retail spending had been picking up, but more in volumes than in values, and the real test would be if the momentum continues into the new year, he said.

Housing data, meanwhile, had been pretty weak with sales volumes declining for the past three months and the REINZ stratified index falling in the most recent reading.

The ANZ Roy Morgan survey recorded higher confidence across all regions and age groups this month. It is higher among men than women and higher in the main population centres than in the rest of the country.