Australians aren't convinced the coalition government's economic plan is working as confidence plunged to its lowest level in more than a year.
At least the Reserve Bank agrees with Treasurer Joe Hockey that there is no immediate risk of a recession, despite the economy recording its slowest quarterly growth in two years.
But the central bank's head of financial stability Luci Ellis warns that 24 years without a recession is an extraordinarily long time.
"Ultimately, it will happen and I guess it's part of my job to make sure that the nation is resilient," she told a conference in Sydney on Tuesday.
Consumer confidence tumbled nearly six per cent in the past week after a weak set of figures that took annual growth to just two per cent.
"The magnitude of the fall in confidence is concerning," said ANZ co-head of Australian economics Felicity Emmett, commenting on the ANZ-Roy Morgan weekly consumer sentiment gauge.
It was the largest weekly fall since around the middle of 2012 and leaves confidence below its monthly average stretching back to 1990.
Tuesday's data came as Tony Abbott continued to trumpet his government's achievements over the past two years.
"I can assure people around Australia that our plan is working," he told parliament.
But business confidence has also taken a hit, although more in response to recent financial market ructions and concerns over the Chinese economic outlook given the timing of the monthly National Australia Bank business survey.
The August report shows confidence at its lowest level since mid-2013.
"Following this month's decline, post-budget gains have been completely unwound and the trend has turned down," NAB economists said.
Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen said the results showed there was no confidence in Mr Hockey, describing him as a "lame duck treasurer".
One saving grace was that business conditions rose in August to their highest level in nearly six years amid mounting evidence that the depreciation in the Australian dollar and record low interest rates are having a desired effect.
However, it hasn't prevented NAB from downgrading its economic growth forecast for 2015/16 to 2.4 per cent from 2.8 per cent previously.
That would be lower than the government's 2.75 per cent budget prediction.
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