It took awhile but the Westpac/MI media release for the consumer sentiment index has finally appeared. This jumped out at me:
Risk aversion increased markedly in this survey. When asked about “the wisest place for savings” 26.6% of respondents nominated “pay down debt”. That was an increase from 18.7% in September. Since we started measuring that component in 1997 there has only been one higher measure, in March 2010.
Westpac’s chief economist went on to say that he expects another rate cut on Feb 7.