The Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index fell 5.7% m/m in January to 104.6, following a slight increase of 0.2% in December.

[Get this delivered to your inbox for FREE. Subscribe to our daily Markets Newsletter.]

The index is now down 12.9% from a year ago. The largest decrease of 15.7 per cent was recorded by the component index reflecting economic conditions next 12 months.

Westpac's Chief Economist, Bill Evans, commented, "This is an extremely difficult surve to interpret given that the survey covered the period of 10-16 January when the floods in Queensland were dominating the news. In particular the survey period coincided with some of the worst days for the city of Brisbane."