28 March 2024, 15:19
By Furniture News Jul 31, 2018

Consumer confidence remains low in July

GfK’s Consumer Confidence Index decreased by one point to -10 in July 2018. Two measures decreased, one stayed the same and two increased.

The Major Purchase Index decreased two points to -2, one point lower than in July 2017.  

Joe Staton, client strategy director at GfK, says: “Despite the World Cup, Wimbledon and warm weather playing front and centre in the nation’s psyche this July, the barometer again reveals a decline in consumer confidence.

"The Overall Index Score has now registered at 0 or negative since February 2016. Concerns about our personal financial situation, and especially the general economic outlook, have contributed to this long slump. There’s more bad news for retailers too in the form of the Major Purchase Index, which has slipped below 0 to reach -2 in July.

"In the medium-term, and during the uncertainty in the run-up to the UK leaving the EU in eight months, it is hard to forecast what kind of good news will change the numbers from negative to positive, or indeed where such good news would originate.

"There’s a heatwave in much of the UK but consumer confidence remains stubbornly sub-zero. And in this environment, any bad news such as a surprising uptick in inflation with the expectation of a corresponding increase in interest rates, or any adverse political event either at home or abroad, would likely have an exaggerated downward drag on consumer confidence.”

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