Consumer confidence fell two points to -21 in February, new data reveals.
GfK’s long-running Consumer Confidence Index shows four measures of consumer confidence were down and one was unchanged in comparison to last month’s announcement.
Joe Staton, Client Strategy Director at GfK, said: “There’s a mixture of bad news and good news for February. The bad news is that the improvement in the Overall Index Score seen over recent months stalled slightly in February due to a fall across most measures.
“However, the good news is that optimism for our personal financial situation for the next 12 months has not slipped back. Although registering again at zero, this is a significant improvement on the -18 score from February last year. This metric is key to understanding the financial mood of the nation because confident householders are more likely to spend despite the cost-of-living crisis.”
He added: “Looking forward, it will be interesting to see what the forthcoming Budget delivers in terms of taxation and inflation. These are important issues to everyone – especially in an election year. The recent performance of the economy will play a crucial role in determining results at the ballot box.
“All the measures this February are better than a year ago, but consumer confidence alone will not carry us into a brighter economic future.”
The UK Consumer Confidence Barometer is conducted among a sample of 2,000 individuals aged 16 years old and over.
