UK economy: Consumers catch ‘January blues’ as confidence slumps
Consumer confidence in the health of the UK economy slumped in January, pointing to further headwinds in the coming months.
A net -34 of respondents to the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) latest sentiment monitor said that the economy would get worse over the next three months, down from -27 in December.
This put confidence in the health of the economy at its lowest level since the BRC started collecting data on the topic in March 2024.
The survey comes after a succession of disappointing data releases, which indicate that the economy slowed significantly in the second half of last year.
Figures out last week showed that growth underwhelmed in November, expanding just 0.1 per cent having contracted marginally in both of the previous two months.
Retail sales contracted unexpectedly last month too, while December’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to its lowest level in over a year.
Most analysts think that the economy was essentially flat at the end of last year, while fears about inflation have started to rise up the agenda again too.
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