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Australia and New Zealand Banking Group says the next six months will be testing for many households with cost-of-living pressures starting to have a meaningful impact.
Chief Executive Shayne Elliott on Thursday told shareholders that while household finances appear to be in strong shape, it is readying for signs of stress in the coming months.
"Our focus is on those customers most exposed to stress: those with less secure employment, those who possibly bought homes right at the peak of the cycle, those more exposed to cost of living increases or those who have suffered other shocks like family breakdown or illness," he said at the company's annual general meeting in Adelaide.
"For those few that will experience stress, we have kept in place the additional hardship resources we built during COVID."
Inflation in Australia is expected to peak around eight per cent in the current quarter. The Reserve Bank last week lifted its benchmark cash rate for the eighth month in a row, to 3.1 per cent, in its battle to control high inflation.
"I can't over emphasise the impact cost-of-living pressures are having in the community. There is particular stress with regard to cost of living and the resulting rise in inflation expectations does drag on consumer confidence," Mr Elliott said.
However he said ANZ data showed households are are entering this period in strong shape and emphasised that the bank was well positioned to support them.
ANZ reported a full-year cash profit of $6.5 billion in October.
