Westpac Bank released its consumer confidence index for Australia on late Tuesday evening. The index fell 2.2% in March, after a 4.2% rise in February.

The index was driven by declines in three of the five sub-indexes.

"The Reserve Bank Board next meets on April 5. As we have been successfully arguing since June last year that we expect the Bank will keep rates on hold through 2016," Westpac Chief Economist Bill Evans said.

"Recent dollar strength has been associated with a more positive outlook for China and commodity prices and as such would not be grounds for a policy adjustment. Equally, while most indicators, including our own, one of which is quoted in this survey, point to an overall improvement in the labour market over the last six months, actual jobs growth appears to be running ahead of those indicators," he added.