Wednesday, 22 June 2005,

Consumer confidence remains strong

Finance Minister Michael Cullen today welcomed the latest consumer confidence index showing confidence remaining at high levels.

“This reflects continuing high employment and continuing strong momentum in the domestic economy.

“Given recent rises in interest rates and signs that the housing market is slowing, some small decline in confidence was to be expected,” he said.

Only 30 per cent of those surveyed were pessimistic about the short term outlook.
Of these, 34 per cent [or a third of a third] nominated disappointment at the budget and at the government’s economic direction as factors in their attitude.

“The fact that the budget was cited by some of the pessimists was unsurprising given negative media commentary around the budget and given that the KiwiSaver scheme will not come into effect until 1 April 2007,” Dr Cullen said.

ENDS

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