UK Consumer Confidence Falls Further Despite Easing Coronavirus Lockdown
June 05 2020 - 3:29AM
Dow Jones News
By Xavier Fontdegloria
Consumer confidence in the U.K. fell to its lowest level in more
than a decade at the end of May, even as the country's coronavirus
lockdown began to ease, data from GfK showed Friday.
The GfK consumer confidence barometer stood at minus 36 at the
end of May, a decrease of two points compared with a reading from
two weeks earlier. The indicator fell to its lowest level since
January 2009.
Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires had expected confidence
to improve to minus 30.
"Against a backdrop of falling house prices, soaring jobless
claims, and with no sign of a rapid V-shaped bounce-back on the
cards, consumers remain pessimistic about the state of their
finances and the wider economic picture for the year to come," Joe
Staton, GfK's client strategy director, said.
Among the five subindexes that form the barometer, four of them
decreased and one increased, data by the research institute
showed.
Britons' assessment of their personal financial situation and
general economic situation over the last year deteriorated
substantially. The subindexes gauging consumers' outlook regarding
their finances and the general economic situation over the coming
year also fell, but at a slower pace.
"The only bright spark in the numbers is for the major-purchase
index with a six-point fillip, pointing to latent demand among
shoppers across the U.K. despite most outlets remaining shuttered,"
Mr. Staton said.
The survey was carried out by 2,000 individuals between May 20
and 26, as the government continued to ease the country out of a
lockdown that was put in place to control the spread of the novel
coronavirus.
"It will be interesting to see just how the consumer appetite
for spending returns in a world of socially distanced shopping and
the seismic shift to online retailing--alongside worries of a fresh
spike in Covid-19 cases as relaxations increase," Mr. Staton
said.
GfK's barometer is usually published monthly, but, since March,
the report is released at fortnightly intervals to evaluate the
impact of the U.K.'s coronavirus lockdown on consumer confidence.
The next release is expected on June 19.
Write to Xavier Fontdegloria at xavier.fontdegloria@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 05, 2020 03:14 ET (07:14 GMT)
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