Digital Finance Analytics (DFA) Blog
"Intelligent Insight"
The latest edition of the Digital Finance Household Finance Confidence Index, to end August is released today. Overall the index rose again, from 95.1 to 95.8. Household costs were relatively contained, whilst many received a boost from the RBA cash rate cut. Some savers were able to take advantage of higher term deposit rates, although … Continue reading “Household Financial Security Confidence Improves Again”
The latest Digital Finance Analytics Household Finance Confidence index, for July 2016 is released today. The index, which measures households’ attitudes to their finances, stands at 95.17, down a little from last month from 95.21, and below the long term average of 100. However, there are wide variations among households. Households with savings in bank … Continue reading “Household Finance Confidence Holds”
From The Conversation. The Australian government is using warnings from rating agencies like Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings (S&P), which placed Australia on a negative watch during the election, to make the case for passing budget measures. In reality, S&P (and the other two agencies in the credit rating industry) has no moral or technical … Continue reading “Why credit rating agencies’ economic advice shouldn’t be trusted”
From The Conversation. The UK’s approach to financial crime has taken a turn for the better recently. The successful prosecutions in the LIBOR-rigging scandal are a signal that British authorities are coming close to their US peers in slapping down errant bankers. The trouble is, there is pressure to take the foot off the pedal. … Continue reading “UK fight to keep financial sector lead should spur more funds for regulation”
The latest edition of the Digital Finance Analytics Household Finance Confidence Index to end June is released today. Overall confidence improved again, to 95.21, although this is still below the long-term neutral score of 100 which we fell below in 2014. Despite Brexit, the indecisive election result, and stock market volatility, the average financial confidence … Continue reading “Household Finance Confidence Improves In June – DFA”
The latest edition of the Digital Finance Analytics Household Financial Security Confidence Index (FCI) is released today, to end May 2016. It shows a significant rise in overall confidence levels, up from 89.2, to 94.7 although this is still below the neutral score of 100, which we fell below in 2014. A number of elements … Continue reading “Household Financial Security Index Rises, Significantly”
The latest edition of the Digital Finance Analytics Household Finance Security Index, to end April, released today, shows a lift from 88.14 to 89.20. This is still below the long term neutral score of 100, but is the highest score so far this year. Of note is the significant spike from 89.67 to 92.45 in … Continue reading “Property Investor Confidence Lifts”
The latest data from our Household Finance Confidence Index showed little change in the month of March 2016, moving from 88.11 to 88.14 when averaged across all households. As the findings from last month therefore remain current, this will be a brief update this time around. Confidence is still below the neutral setting of 100, … Continue reading “Household Finance Confidence Still Low In March”
The February edition of the Digital Finance Analytics Household Finance Confidence Index, released today, fell from 89.24 to 88.11, and remains below a neutral setting. A range of factors have led to this latest fall. Savings was one area of concern, because with stronger concerns about the property sector, and volatile stock markets, more households … Continue reading “Household Finance Confidence Falls Again In February”
In the latest edition of the DFA Household Finance Confidence Index, to end January 2016, we see a marked fall in overall confidence, down from 91.46 to 89.24. This reverses the improvement we saw in the last quarter of 2015. Households with investment property and stock market investments registered the strongest declines. Those in WA … Continue reading “Household Finance Confidence Takes A Dive”