GfK: consumer confidence reaches highest point since April 2010

GfK’s UK consumer confidence index has increased by five points this month to -16.

Measures for personal financial situation over the last 12 months and over the next 12 months, general economic situation of the country over the last 12 months and over the next 12 months have all seen increases this month; the major purchase index is the only measure decreasing this month.

Nick Moon, Managing Director of Social Research at GfK, comments:
“There is now no doubt that consumer confidence has recovered strongly from the unparalleled trough of the last five years. At -16, the overall Index is now at its highest point since April 2010. In the last three months the Index has risen by 11 points, one of the best single quarter improvements since the Index started climbing up from its all-time low of -39 in July 2008 after the credit crunch.

It is also significant that since December 12 there has been only one month where the Index fell, and even that was a minor one point drop. With a series like the Index it is the longer-term changes that mean far more than one single month’s figures, and the current trend is definitely upwards. This can be seen clearly from the 12-month moving average which started the year at -29, rose to -28 by February, to -27 by May, -26 in June and it is now at -25. Given that the 12-month moving average was either -29 or -30 for the whole of 2012 this is a very dramatic change.

Other than the element of the index about whether now is a good time for major purchases, which fell by a trivial one point, all the individual elements of the Index rose by five or seven points.”

Source : GfK
www.gfk.com/uk/news-and-events/press-room/press-releases/pages/consumer-confidence-barometer-highest-point-since-april-2010.aspx