28 March 2024, 08:27
By Furniture News Jun 29, 2018

June sees further consumer confidence decline

GfK's Consumer Confidence Index dropped two points to -9 in June, reflecting less consumer confidence in the economy.

Joe Staton, client strategy director at GfK, says: “Consumers are yet again feeling less upbeat, as is evident from the two-point drop in the Overall Index Score this month.

"We are reporting falls across all key measures. Scores on personal finance are down but there is a more marked deterioration in our levels of optimism about the general state of the economy, with the verdicts on the past year and the coming year each tumbling four points.

"When will the strong jobs market and low interest rates boost the economic mood? That’s the key to confidence increasing more generally.

"Meanwhile, with Britain’s hard-pressed retail sector very much in the news, there is little comfort in the one-point drop to zero in the Major Purchase Index [down one point YoY]. Shoppers are holding on to their cash and consumers in general seem set on their path of self-imposed austerity.

"The Overall Index Score has now registered at zero or negative for 30 months. Contrast that with 2015 – when there was a full year of positive numbers. The trend since those 2015 figures has been resolutely downwards, and it’s difficult to see the direction changing in the run-up to the UK leaving the EU in March 2019.”

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