GfK’s long-running Consumer Confidence Index increased by three points to -7 in August 2018. Four measures increased, and one stayed the same.
The Major Purchase Index, which indicates the public's willingness to spend on big-ticket items such as furniture, increased eight points to +6 – six points higher than in August 2017.
Joe Staton, client strategy director at GfK, says: “Consumers are no doubt aware of the incessant Brexit noise, the core debate about whether ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’, the accompanying threats, warnings and uncertainties, the wild hopes and dark fears, and the daily ups and downs.
"But are consumers putting their hands over their ears and quietly saying: let’s just wait-and-see?
"We are just months away from the Brexit crunch but there is no sign (yet) of any crash in consumer confidence. Yes, the core index continues to muddle along in negative territory, but Armageddon seems a distant prospect. With this month’s jump to -7, we have four of the constituent scores up and one unchanged. And we are well above the worrying -39 we saw in July 2008. Are consumers being more sensible than the pundits? Have they developed an immunity to the Brexit babble?”
