New data has found that older Australians have been spending more despite the cost of living crisis, while young people continue to cut back.
The analysis comes from Commonwealth Bank and examined seven million of their customer’s de-identified payments.
Younger Australians aged 18-19 have continued to cut back on clothing, travel and household goods purchases, reducing the spending on these by 1.9%.
They also reduced spending on essentials such as petrol and bills by 2.3%.
People aged 30-39 were also spending spent less, with a 1.1% cut back in essential spending and 1% reduction in the discretionary categories.
However, people aged 60-69 lifted their spending by 3.9% overall, and the over-70s came out on top, increasing their spending by 7.7%.
The results showed that this was the second year in a row that a generational spending gap has appeared with Australians, a trend that has been documented more broadly by the Grattan Institute.
The Institute has found previously that in 1994, the 65-74 cohort had around three times the wealth of those aged 25-34.
However, by 2020, this gap had grown almost five times as much.
Wade Tubman from CommBank iQ said that the results from the latest data showed "younger Australians are still making sacrifices” as they face the pressure of cost of living.