Myer posts $276.5m loss as consumer confidence sits at 72

By James Dore · 2026-09-24

Three numbers landed inside 24 hours this week and they all point the same way. Consumer confidence at 72. A $276.5 million loss at Australia's biggest department store chain. And a near-certain interest rate rise arriving just as retailers enter their most important trading quarter.

The confidence index

The ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence index fell 1.9 points to 72.0 in the week to 20 September 2026.^[1] The index surveys Australian households each week across five questions about financial and economic outlook; a reading of 100 means positive and negative responses are equal, so 72 means negative responses outnumber positive ones by a wide margin.

Short-term economic confidence, measuring how Australians feel about the next 12 months, fell 5.5 points, the biggest single drop across all components for the week.^[1] Willingness to buy a major household item eased 4.1 points, and medium-term confidence over five years fell 1.8 points. The one component that rose was current financial conditions over the past year, up 2.5 points, which likely reflects people comparing back to a period that felt worse.

Sophia Angala, ANZ Economist, said: "ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence remains around its recent lows, with last week's pullback led by weaker confidence in the economic outlook."^[1] Weekly inflation expectations rose 0.2 percentage points to 6.1%, with the four-week moving average steady at the same level.^[1]

Myer's numbers

Myer Holdings reported a statutory net loss of $276.5 million for the full year ended 25 July 2026, on total sales of $3,369 million.^[3] The result included impairment charges on store and brand assets, and management attributed it partly to a material downturn in discretionary spending.

A business doing $3.37 billion in sales still posted a loss above a quarter of a billion dollars. That is a structural statement about how hard it has become to convert foot traffic into margin when households are watching every dollar.

Myer is the largest domestic department store chain in Australia, which makes its results a reasonable read on how middle-market discretionary spending is tracking. When a retailer at that scale loses money on $3.37 billion in revenue, the confidence index stops being an abstract survey number.

The rate call

Belinda Allen, Head of Australian Economics at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), said: "We now expect the RBA to hike the cash rate by 25 basis points to 4.60% at its 28-29 September meeting."^[2] ANZ has moved to a similar position. A 25-basis-point rise would take the cash rate, the rate the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) charges banks to borrow overnight and which flows through to mortgage and business lending rates, from 4.35% to 4.60%.

RBA Governor Michele Bullock said on 18 September 2026: "Inflation is too high. We are focused on getting it back down and making sure that it does not become embedded into price and wage-setting decisions."^[4] RBA Deputy Governor Andrew Hauser said that upside inflation risks from the Middle East were striking alongside the strength of the AI and technology boom in the United States.^[5]

The 28-29 September meeting lands before Melbourne Cup week, before Black Friday, before the Christmas trading sprint. Every dollar of discretionary income that flows to a higher mortgage repayment is a dollar that does not reach the categories most advertisers are trying to shift. Brands and agencies building fourth-quarter plans right now are doing it against the weakest demand backdrop in recent memory, with the RBA meeting date set for the end of this month.

James Dore

James Dore is Strategy Director at Bushnote, a leader in SEO and AEO in Australia. He writes on search, AI and the technology decisions shaping government and industry.