Consumer confidence remains 'sub-zero' despite heatwave

GfK’s Consumer Confidence Barometer fell one point to -10 for the month. Expectations for the general economic situation over the next 12 months slipped by one point, although shoppers were more confident about their personal financial situation over the next year.

Joe Staton, client strategy director at GfK said: “Despite the World Cup, Wimbledon and warm weather playing front and centre in the nation’s psyche this July, the Barometer again reveals a decline in consumer confidence. The Overall Index Score has now registered at zero or negative since February 2016. Concerns about our personal financial situation, and especially the general economic outlook, have contributed to this long slump.

“There’s more bad news for retailers too in the form of the Major Purchase Index, which has slipped below zero to reach -2 in July. In the medium term, and during the uncertainty in the run-up to the UK leaving the European Union in eight months, it is hard to forecast what kind of good news will change the numbers from negative to positive, or indeed where such good news would originate. There’s a heatwave in much of the UK but consumer confidence remains stubbornly sub-zero.”