Consumers

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Consumer confidence has made a marginal improvement ahead of next week’s spring budget, but there were no signs of any real recovery, according to a closely watched survey out this morning.

The GfK index for March showed a one-point rise in headline confidence levels to –19.

Views on personal finances for the past year are slightly down from –7 to –9, while perceptions of the wider economy over the past 12 months and looking ahead a year are each up two points at –42 and –29 respectively.

Neil Bellamy, consumer insights director of NIQ GfK, said, since September, the headline had been in a range of –17 to –22, which was more positive than mid-2022 into early 2023 at the height of the cost of living crisis. That period delivered the worst headline scores ever, including nine months at –40 or worse.

“But we are still below the long-term average of –10,” he added.

“If consumer confidence were a patient languishing in a hospital bed, a doctor would say there is little evidence of a recovery as yet.

“Where do we go from here? The current stability is to be welcomed but it won’t take much to upset the fragile consumer mood.”

GfK surveyed 2,005 individuals aged 16 and older across the UK between 28 February and 13 March for its Consumer Confidence Barometer.

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