Jitters over China shares

A RENEWED steep sell- off on the Chinese share market risks undermining improving levels of consumer confidence in Australia.

Just as consumers appeared to be slowly getting over their worries for the Australian economic outlook earlier this month, caused by the fallout over the Greek debt crisis and China’s economic woes, Chinese share prices have taken another hit.

Australian shares opened 0.9 per cent lower yesterday following weak global markets in the wake of an 8 per cent slump in Chinese shares, the biggest one- day drop in eight years.

The ANZ- Roy Morgan consumer confidence gauge rose 0.6 per cent in the past week, building on the 4.5 per cent recovery of the previous week.

“The fact that confidence has held the previous week’s bounce is a positive sign that confidence could continue to recover in coming weeks in the absence of further market volatility,” ANZ chief economist Warren Hogan said releasing the figures yesterday.

Other data showed that despite the unsettled nature of consumer confidence in recent months, it hasn’t put people off applying for loans or new credit cards.