Consumer confidence held steady this month despite the uncertainty caused by the Brexit deadlock in Westminster.
GfK’s Consumer Confidence Index shows overall confidence remained at -13 during March. However, the reading had been -7 a year ago.
The data showed people are surprisingly slightly more optimistic about their personal finances and the general economic situation in the year ahead, but both measures remain considerably lower than this time last year.
The research also suggests that consumers remain cautious with their spending and are holding onto their cash. The major purchase index, which registers likelihood to make a big purchase such as furniture or electrical goods, decreased four points to +1, while the savings index, which indicates people’s intentions to save, increased two points to +20.
GkK strategy director Joe Staton commented: “Against a backdrop of stable inflation and a robust labour market, where wages continue to grow more quickly than prices, confidence has remained negative but fairly stable since the referendum.
“However, while UK consumers report a small increase in optimism for their personal financial situation for the coming year, the index is being dragged down by our nagging fears for the general economy.
“Things might change when people feel the current crisis has passed but what sort of resolution can consumers reasonably contemplate just now? Or are consumers rightly sensing a bumpier economic climate for post-Brexit Britain?”
Earlier this week, figures from the CBI’s Distributive Trades Survey suggested that retail sales volumes were down in March, compounding an already subdued start to 2019 for the sector.
NAM Implications:
- From a NAM’s-eye-view, a classic case of abysmal quality negotiation of Westminster ‘experts’.
- For a blow-by-blow analysis in commercial negotiation terms that a NAM can really relate to, and despair……
- …see Paul Georgiou’ s analysis and critique of Brexit negotiations.
