Consumer debt holders have reported a significant slide in cash flow and confidence in March as rising prices and geopolitical shocks squeeze household budgets.
Agile Market Intelligence’s latest Consumer Pulse Survey for March 2026 has shown Australians with consumer debt as the clear weak spot in household finances, with their cash flow index plunging deep into negative territory.
The survey’s cash flow index (a gauge of whether money left over after expenses was growing or shrinking) revealed that Australians with consumer debt had moved decisively backwards.
Their reading dropped by 16.7 points in March to sit at -14.
Debt‑free households and mortgagors have not escaped the squeeze, but still remain on the positive side of the ledger.
Both groups reported smaller falls in their cash flow indices, leaving debt‑free respondents at +18.9 and mortgage holders at +13.5.
Agile said this underscored that the two categories were feeling the pinch but still had a healthy amount of breathing space.
The data house linked the shift to a renewed burst of cost‑of‑living pressure driven by escalating overseas pressures, as opposed to purely domestic factors.
Setting out how global turbulence was filtering into Australian wallets, the firm pointed to supply‑chain disruptions and higher fuel prices.
“The impact on the supply chain has caused drastic price hikes recently, particularly fuel, due to the conflict ongoing across the other side of the globe,” Agile said.
“This results in establishments increasing the costs of everyday goods and services, thereby placing further financial pressure on consumers.”
Anxiety rises almost everywhere
The tighter cash flow metrics are, in turn, impacting attitudes, with almost one in two Australians with consumer debt (48 per cent) now describing themselves as anxious about their finances.
This is a jump of 10.5 percentage points on last month’s results and makes the group the most worried cohort in the market.
Mortgage holders have also become slightly more unsettled, with the share who said they were anxious nudging significantly higher.
Meanwhile, around a quarter of debt‑free households revealed that they felt uneasy about their financial position.
Only one slice of the population is moving in the opposite direction, this being men aged 18–34, who reported a small fall in anxiety, and now stand as the least worried group.
Yet nerves are fraying across all other age and gender categories and are most pronounced in women in their mid‑working years.
Among females aged 35–54, the percentage who said they felt anxious jumped by more than 12 points, leaving half of the group worried about their financial position.
Women bear the brunt of the squeeze
The survey showed a pronounced gender divide beneath the aggregate numbers.
Every female age group reported negative cash flow in March, meaning all Australian women over the age of 18 believe that their bank balances are likely to lurch backwards moving forward.
For women aged 35–54, the outlook is particularly bleak, with their cash flow index falling by 19.2 points, ending the month at -15, the weakest result recorded for any segment.
Young men stood out as the most comfortable cohort, with those aged 18–34 reporting the highest positive cash flow index at +38.2, even after a monthly pullback.
Other male groups also saw declines, yet remain in surplus, underscoring the uneven nature of the ongoing cost‑of‑living shock.
Looking back, most Australians feel worse off
When Agile asked Australians to compare their financial health with March last year, pessimists far outnumbered optimists.
Among those with consumer debt, 45.2 per cent said their situation had declined over the past 12 months – again the highest share of any debt group.
Almost a third of mortgage holders gave the same answer, while a larger share of debt‑free households said their financial situations had worsened since last March.
The survey showed older women were also strongly represented among those who felt worse off.
Nearly half of females aged 55 and over (48.1 per cent) reported that their financial position had declined over the year, while the proportion of males aged 35–54 who said they were worse off had risen by 10.6 percentage points.
[Related: Home ownership dream slips further away from Australians]
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