ANZ chief Shayne Elliott says wealth and health are booming

Australians are the wealthiest and healthiest they have ever been despite the threat of rising interest rates, inflation and recession, according to ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott.

Australians are the wealthiest and healthiest they have ever been despite the threat of rising interest rates, inflation and recession, according to ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott.

Mr Elliott told a CEDA business lunch in Brisbane on Wednesday that conditions in the Australian economy “were about as good as they get” with high savings and low debt stress coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“If we were to start from scratch and design a world, we could probably not do any better,” said Mr Elliott. “Simply put, Australians have never been wealthier, they have never had more liquid assets, never been healthier or more employed.”

Mr Elliott said that while both Australian and New Zealand households had a lot of gross debt, average net debt was zero.

“That’s the lowest it has been in 20 years,” he said. “During Covid-19 people behaved as if they were the corporate treasurer at a really big institution, “ he said.

“They got the manual out and did exactly the right things - they paid down most of their expensive debt with credit card balances the lowest they have been since 2003. They shored up their balance sheets by saving money with saving levels going through the roof.”

Shayne Elliott in Brisbane

He said the number of Australian mortgage holders behind in repayments was sitting at 0.7 per cent, 30 per cent lower than the historical average.

“The number one safety net people have is their jobs,” Mr Elliott said.

“Not only do people have jobs, they are getting the hours they want and their pay is going up at a faster rate than they have experienced for a long period of time. That drives a lot of stability in the system.”

He said that despite the positive circumstances, people were quite rightly worried about inflation, cost of living and energy prices.

“They also are worried about geopolitics and what all that might lead to,” Mr Elliott said. “But they are still acting confident.”

He cautioned Australian households and businesses remained some of the least well prepared in the world.

“It’s been 30 years since there was a really serious downturn in Australia,” Mr Elliott said. “That means that for most people who run businesses they have never been through a real crisis.”

Turning to ANZ’s proposed $4.9bn purchase of Suncorp Group’s banking arm, Mr Elliott said the transaction would boost the bank’s Queensland focus and make it a more nationally-based lender. “We have acquired a great franchise in Suncorp,” he said. “This is a well run bank with great culture and customer service.”