And helping boost consumer confidence would have been better results from their stockmarket investment and super, especially from Australia.
Foreign markets and funds seemed to have been crimped by the strong Australian dollar and the indifferent performance of Japan.
But the Australian stockmarket did much better than that’s driven the sharp rebound.
According to the SuperRatings organisation super funds have had their best ever half-year results, with the full year bouncing back after 2008’s dreadful year, to return to almost 13% .
The group said the median balanced option fund gained 12% in the second half of 2009, including 2.2% in December alone.
The median balance funds (a sort of average fund for comparative purposes) lost 19.7% in calendar 2008, and added 12.9% in 2009.
So there’s still around 7%-8% in losses there (and more in many cases), but the rebound will have eased the fears of many investors and consumers that the their savings were draining away.
The median balanced option fund gained 12% in the second half of 2009, according to the research group.
The half-year return is the best since compulsory super was introduced in 1992.
"After experiencing their worst year on record in 2008, when the median balanced option lost 19.7 per cent, Australia’s major super funds have staged a remarkable recovery in 2009," said SuperRatings managing director Jeff Bresnahan. For the full year, the median balanced fund gained 12.9%.
"However, this was not without angst, with a virtually flat first half of the year."
The ASX 200 benchmark share index closed at 4861.2 on Tuesday, up about 55% from its March 2009 low of 3145 points in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.
SuperRatings defines its balanced option fund as having 60%- 76% of their allocation in growth style assets.
Balanced option funds account for around 80% of all super funds held by Australians.
The ASX 200 rose 6.4% in the first half of 2009 as the rebound developed, then jumped 23.2% in the second half.
For the year, the median growth fund grew by 16.5%, while the median fund focused primarily on Australian shares rose 35.8%, SuperRatings said.
That compares with a mere 7.8% median performance for international funds, which suffered greater losses from the financial turmoil of last year, and were hit in local currency terms by the surge in the Australian dollar.
"Based on a 32% exposure to Australian shares within a balanced option, and a 33% return from the All Ordinaries during 2009, Australian shares look to have added some 10.3% after the provision for tax," SuperRatings said in yesterday’s statement..
"Whilst international equities also saw bumper returns of 28% during 2009, many funds remained "un" or only partially hedged during the year meaning that the 28% return was quickly diminished to 8% after the appreciation of the Australian dollar, the level of hedging and tax were factored in.
"Given a 20% exposure to this asset class international shares looked to have added just 1.6% to the average balanced option.
"The only other contributor to returns was the fixed interest area which returned a median of around 6% for the year.
"Given a 16% exposure to this asset class has translated into a further 0.8% after tax for investors.
"Poor cash rates and poorly performing property and alternative asset classes did nothing for super investors in 2009, adding the remaining 20 basis points for the total 12.9% return.
"Despite the good news for 2009 it would appear that the Global Financial Crisis has paralysed Australians.
"In our benchmark report released to major Australian super funds this month, it was revealed that personal or discretionary contributions fell by over 40% in 2008/09.
"This was on top of a 40% drop in contributions in 2007/08, immediately after the Hon. Peter Costello’s generous contribution limits were abolished.
"So, in the last 2 years, Australians have reduced their voluntary contributions to super by over 60% which surely translates into a loss of confidence.
"In addition to this we have seen a 40% drop in transfers between funds.
"Whilst no doubt some of this drop in activity has been caused by the aforementioned paralysis, some needs also to be attributed to the onerous requirements imposed by the anti-money laundering legislation and made even harder by the payee funds, many of whom seem intent on frustrating their so-called client out of the transaction through excessive paperwork.
"It is high time this seemingly simple process was streamlined to allow further industry account consolidation," the group commented.
