Australian consumer confidence has surged despite the negative economic impact of Victoria’s fourth lockdown and the emergence of a new COVID-19 cluster in Sydney. According to ANZ-Roy Morgan’s consumer confidence index, it has risen 1.3 percent this week to 112.4 points, which is above the weekly average score and 14.9 points higher than the same week one year ago. The increase was primarily driven by more Australians saying their current financial situation was better than this time one year ago. Families who say they are worse off financially compared to one year ago has also slightly fallen. The news of the growth comes after last week’s employment figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which revealed the unemployment rate plummeted from 5.5 to 5.1 percent after 155,200 people found employment in May. “This strength in the employment data overshadowed news about the emergence of a COVID cluster in Sydney,” ANZ …