ANZ wealth and private banking managing director John Body said the deepening debt crisis in Europe and the prolonged patchy growth in the New Zealand economy had probably contributed to a 5% drop in confidence since April as measured by the ANZ retirement savings confidence barometer.
"While the survey found that almost two-thirds of New Zealanders are saving in some form, this drop of confidence is still surprising."
The barometer was designed to see if people had a realistic target for their retirement savings, he said.
It asked around 1000 participants whether they were saving for retirement, then asked how much weekly income they would like in addition to New Zealand Superannuation when they retired. It calculated the lump sum needed to generate this amount and then asked how confident they were of reaching their goal.
Fifteen percent of those saving were very confident of reaching their goal, 29% were confident - in both cases men were more confident than women.
However, 37% said they were not very confident and 19% were not at all confident, with the majority of those respondents being women.
Mr Body said that for many people, that was the first time they had been prompted to consider what they were saving towards. When they matched their chosen income with the lump sum required, that was where the doubt kicked in.
Four out of 10 people surveyed picked an income of $500 a week or more in retirement.
For a 20-year retirement period, a minimum lump sum of around $415,000 was required.
"This is a big amount of savings to achieve considering the current contribution rates of 2% of salary into KiwiSaver."
Younger participants, with more time before they reached retirement, were more confident about reaching their retirement goals; 51% of those aged between 15 and 29 were confident compared with 35% of 45-64 year olds.
Mr Body said KiwiSaver had been successful in introducing the savings habit to a new generation and demographic of New Zealanders.
"The survey also shows that while affordability remains a serious issue in terms of joining KiwiSaver and starting the savings habit, it is not a complete barrier for the majority of Kiwis to make regular contributions towards retirement savings."
