Howzat for Christmas cheer

FESTIVE season cheer and a dominant Ashes series from the home side has helped drive consumer confidence across Australia to its highest level in more than four years, banking giant ANZ says.

The latest reading from the ANZ and Roy Morgan consumer confidence index shows it rose an unusually strong 4.7 per cent to hit 122 points from mid-December to the end of last week.

The index is at its highest level since November 2013.

ANZ Australian economics head David Plank said consumers are happy to overlook high household debt and escalating energy bills as they push on into 2018.

It came as new figures showed Australians racked up $29 billion on credit card debt this Christmas.

The bill equates to $1727 for every Australian, financial comparison website finder.com.au found.