Regional consumers now have higher discretionary spending power than at any time since 2003 and half of all consumers in regional Australian towns and cities agree that they are financially comfortable or have no financial worries. These are the key findings from the latest foreseechange survey carried out in October 2007.
Charlie Nelson director of foreseechange says “The improvement in regional Australians’ financial wellbeing has been a significant trend since 2003 and in contrast there has been no net improvement of capital city Australians since that time.”
The growth in regional affluence is primarily due to the success of the Australian economy which has resulted in increased employment levels and allowed a reduction in income tax. Regional residents generally have lower mortgages to pay and are more likely to own their home outright therefore increases in disposable income tend to translate into greater discretionary spending power.
Gains for all demographic groups
Improvements in regional consumer spending power have not been restricted to higher income households. Four years ago half of all regional consumers saw themselves as just “Getting by”, meaning they manage to meet day to day expenses but there’s not much left over. The proportion of consumers in this, the biggest segment, has fallen by just over 10% as regional consumer affluence grows. At the lower end of the regional socio-economic ladder the proportion of regional people who consider themselves “Broke” ie never seem to have enough money, has fallen by almost one third from 12.2% in 2003 to 9% in the October 2007 survey. This welcome shift shows the positive impact of employment growth and improvements in welfare on the lowest income regional households.