Westpac Bank released its consumer confidence index for Australia on late Tuesday evening. The index fell 0.8% in December, after a 3.9% gain in November.

The index was mainly driven by a drop in a future economic conditions (next 5 years) sub-index.

"The Index has held on to most of the gains from last month's surprise 4% lift and is 10.7% above its levels this time last year. There have only been two months since January 2014 with higher index readings," Westpac Chief Economist Bill Evans said.

"The Reserve Bank Board next meets on February 2. We expect the Board will decide to hold rates steady pending further evidence on the labour market; commodity prices; the Australian dollar; and inflation. Westpac has long held the view that the RBA will be on hold throughout 2016 with the risk to any move being clearly to the downside," he noted.