The CommBank Household Spending Insights (HSI) Index fell by 1.8 per cent in December 2024 after a strong Black Friday sales spending boost in November.
The fall was driven by an 8.3 percent decline in spending on Household Goods, such as clothing and department stores, as many consumers had brought forward their spending to take advantage of sales activity in November. December also saw relatively large declines in spending on Hospitality (-2.6 per cent), Food & Beverage Goods (-2.0 per cent) and Recreation (-2.0 per cent).
Increased household December spending was seen in Utilities (+4.9 per cent) driven largely by strata management fees, Comms & Digital (+1.2 per cent) and Transport (+0.7 per cent).
"The fall in household spending in December and subdued growth throughout 2024 emphasises that the consumer remains cautious. As we've seen in past years, sales spending on items like household goods was brought forward to October and November to take advantage of Black Friday sales promotions, which resulted in a drop in December," CBA Chief Economist Stephen Halmarick said.
The annual HSI growth rate rose to 5.2 per cent in December 2024, with the strongest spending categories over the year Insurance (+11.5 per cent), Communications and Digital (+10 per cent), Health (+9.4 per cent) and Recreation (+7.3 per cent). The only category to fall in 2024 was Transport (-0.7 per cent).
The report revealed homeowners with a mortgage (+3.8 per cent) have increased spending more than those who own their home outright (+2.8 per cent) over the year. Renters continue to be the weakest spenders out of the home ownership categories, growing at 2.4 per cent annually.
"The weakness in spending in December, combined with the improving inflation environment, supports our view that the RBA can begin to lower interest rates at the first meeting of the year in February. We expect 100bp of monetary policy easing through 2025," said Mr Halmarick.
The CommBank HSI Index tracks month-on-month data at a macro level and is based on de-identified payments data from approximately 7 million CBA customers, comprising roughly 30 per cent of all Australian consumer transactions.
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