Canberra: A new report has revealed that Australians have cut back on their spending in a number of key areas to deal with growing cost-of-living pressures.
Half of the 2,000 respondents in the National Australia Bank (NAB) survey report have switched to cheaper brands of alternatives, 28 per cent have cut back on subscriptions to apps and news services, and 22 per cent have cut back on outsourcing home services like house cleaning and lawn mowing, reports Xinhua news agency.
“We can see the impact of inflation starting to show with prices moving up and we know many Australian households are already feeling cost-of-living pressures,” said NAB Group Executive of Personal Banking Rachel Slade.
Costs have increased across the board with inflation passing 5.1 per cent in the most recent Consumer Price Index announcement from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Furthermore, back-to-back interest rate increases mean that many Australians have seen their monthly mortgage payments increase by hundreds of dollars each month.
Therefore, banks offered several promotions such as free internet with home loans, fixed interest rates and cash bonuses, looking to capture customers that are shopping around for their home loans.
“There are options available to customers to help them stay in control of their money, whether that be creating a budget, bucketing funds, immediately transferring savings into a separate account to reduce the temptation to spend or making accounts invisible,” added Slade.
–IANS