The CommBank Household Spending Insights (HSI) Index rose 0.2% in April.

Seven of the twelve HSI categories recorded spending growth for the month, led by insurance (up 1.6%), hospitality (up 1.4%) and communications and digital (up 0.7%).

According to CBA, the increase seen in hospitality spending was likely driven by the Easter-Anzac Day ‘super holiday’ period. April also featured the lead-up to the federal election, recovery from ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, and newly announced tariffs by the Trump administration.

Spending on utilities fell 2% in the month, the largest decline across all categories, with decreases seen in electricity, gas, water and council services. Transport (down 0.8%), education (down 0.7%) and household services (down 0.7%) also declined.

“Another soft month for household spending reinforces our view that a slower than expected consumer recovery is unfolding. This trend, along with global economic uncertainty, led us to recently downgrade our Australian GDP forecast for 2025,” says CBA Senior Economist Belinda Allen.

“While moderating inflation, February’s RBA rate cut and lower utility and petrol bills are improving purchasing power, households clearly remain deliberate with their spending choices. The recent pause of additional tariffs between the US and China could improve sentiment going forward, however we expect it will take additional interest rates cuts to improve momentum in consumer spending.

“We maintain our call for the RBA to cut rates by 25 basis points [this] week, with a forecast end of year cash rate of 3.35%.”  

The annual rate of spending across home ownership status saw a surprising shift in April – renters have typically recorded the weakest spending over the past two years, however this has now switched with renters leading annual growth in spending (up 2.4%), followed by those with a mortgage (up 2.2%) and outright homeowners most sluggish (up 0.7%). 

“Renters in particular have increased discretionary spending which suggests that while consumers are making cutbacks in some areas, many are still making trade-offs and allocating a share of their wallet to areas like hospitality and recreation and more so in April given the additional public holidays,” says Ms Allen.

Queensland recorded the strongest household spending growth in April of the states and territories, rising 0.8% following a rebound from ex-tropical cyclone Alfred in March, when the state posted the softest growth of all states at just 0.2%.