The July reading remained below 100, indicating households are still pessimistic overall even as confidence improved from the prior month.
Australia’s Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index rose 4.1% to 83.9 in July, signaling an improvement in household confidence. Even so, the index remained below the 100 level, a threshold that generally indicates pessimists still outnumber optimists, suggesting consumers are less downbeat but not yet broadly confident.