The Melbourne Cricket Ground
© AFP/File William West

Sydney, Jan 10: The 5-0 Ashes whitewash boosted the Australian consumer confidence index to a 17-month high in January. Country’s leading bank Westpac suggested that the superb Ashes victory contributed to the unexpectedly strong reading.

As a result of the tremendous Ashes victory, the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Confidence Index rose by 7.3 percent to 114.0 in January from 106.2 in December, reported the news.com.au.

Westpac senior economist Justin Smirk said that the figure was a "surprise", particularly because December's reading was in itself an 11.8 percent bounce as compared to November.

He said that the Consumer Sentiment Index was at a its highest level since 2005, recovering from three interest rate rises in 2006 that took the cost of borrowing to 6.25 percent.

"Clearly, robust employment growth, wage gains, rising asset prices, including house prices, have offset the negativity of higher interest rates. Of course the Australian cricket team's whitewash of the Ashes series, the first in 86 years, would have also brought a warm glow to every Australian heart," the paper quoted Smirk as saying.

Buoyed by the overall boom, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) lifted rates by 25 basis points on November 8, to 6.25 per cent. "Retail sales did moderate in the second half of 2006 as the RBA was lifting rates. However, the surprisingly solid rebound in sentiment over December and January does beg the question: Was this moderation only temporary?" Smirk added. (ANI)