UK shopper confidence improved in March on the again of higher financial forecasts, however folks’s outlook on their very own funds worsened, in accordance with knowledge printed on Friday.
Analysis group GfK stated its index of shopper confidence, a carefully watched measure of how folks view their private funds and wider financial prospects, had risen this month by two factors to -36.
The studying was the best since March 2022 and according to analyst forecasts, but it surely remained properly beneath zero, indicating an general decline in confidence.
Respondents to the survey, which ran between March 1 and 14, have been extra optimistic concerning the 12 months forward, with the sub-index measuring their normal outlook on the long run financial state of affairs rising by 3 factors to -40.
However Joe Staton, shopper technique director at GfK, stated the general enchancment masked “persevering with considerations amongst customers about their private monetary state of affairs”.
Respondents’ forecast for his or her private funds within the subsequent 12 months fell three factors to -21, pointing to the truth that “wages aren’t maintaining with rising costs and the cost of living crisis stays a stark actuality for many”, stated Staton.
General, shopper confidence in March was 5 factors decrease than in the identical month in 2022, as hovering power payments, greater rates of interest and meals costs squeezed family budgets over the previous 12 months.
The GfK knowledge adopted affirmation on Wednesday from the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics that shopper worth inflation rose to 10.4 per cent in February, up from 10.1 per cent in January.
The sudden uptick in inflation has strengthened fears that worth rises are more and more being pushed by home pressures within the companies sector, which are typically extra persistent than the exterior shock of excessive power costs.
“Simply having sufficient cash to stay proper and pay the payments stays the primary concern for customers throughout the UK,” stated Staton.
However, GfK famous that buyers in March reported a slight uptick of their willingness to make costly purchases, in addition to within the chance that they might put cash into financial savings accounts.
Ashley Webb, UK economist at Capital Economics, a analysis firm, stated that “although actual family incomes have been eroded as a result of excessive inflation, households seem to have supported their actual spending through the use of their pandemic financial savings”. She added that resilience within the labour market had additionally lifted shopper morale.
The survey comes a day after the Bank of England raised interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to 4.25 per cent, marking the central financial institution’s eleventh consecutive enhance since December 2021 in response to excessive inflation.
Webb stated that whereas additional rises within the base price have been “more likely to weigh on shopper confidence, we don’t anticipate rates of interest to rise a lot farther from right here.
“As a substitute, we anticipate the easing in inflation and the resultant increase in actual family incomes will assist shopper confidence this 12 months.”
