The recent extreme volatility in financial markets may have shaken the mood of investors and Australian households, but motorists could prove beneficiaries.
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The steep sell-off in global shares last week, which sliced tens of billions of dollars off the value of the Australian market, also triggered a drop in the oil price.
Commonwealth Securities chief economist Craig James said the Singapore gasoline price fell by 5.2 per cent last week in Australian dollar terms, potentially slicing around five cents off the Australian pump price.
"Petrol prices have eased to three-month lows and have potential to fall further," Mr James said.
"If petrol prices do continue to decline, it will boost spending power, in addition to keeping inflation and interest rates low."
In the interim, the sharemarket slide may have put a dent in the buoyant confidence levels seen since the start of the year.
Weekly and monthly consumer sentiment gauges, which were surveyed over the weekend, will be released on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.
Commonwealth Bank chief economist Michael Blythe said there were some similarities with the beginning of the global financial crisis in 2008.
"The backdrop has fostered complacency and risk appetite again," he said.
A degree of "irrational exuberance" was present, he added, but fears of a new crisis look overdone.
Global debt, for example, was on a different trajectory, declining over three per cent of GDP in the past year while having increased by 7.7 per cent in the two years preceding the GFC.
Confidence had been lifted to a five-year high by a strong employment market despite wages growth having been flatlining at a 20-year low.
January labour figures will be released on Thursday.
Economists were expecting a more modest rise in employment in the month of 15,000 after the upbeat pace that saw a record 403,000 people get a job in 2017.
However, they expected this still could be enough to see the jobless rate tick back down to 5.4 per cent from 5.5 per cent in December and to a five-year low seen in October and November last year.
In its quarterly monetary policy statement on Friday, the Reserve Bank said it expected the unemployment rate to have eased to 5.25 per cent by the middle of this year as the economy strengthens.
Australian Associated Press
