UK consumer confidence falls further in November, GfK says

Consumer confidence in the UK fell further in November amid worries about the impact of the Brexit vote, according to the latest survey from market research firm GfK.

GfK’s long-running consumer confidence index fell five points to -8, missing expectations of a less steep decline to -4 and marking the lowest reading since -12 in July.

Joe Staton, head of Market Dynamics at GfK, said: “The slump across the board this month points to continuing uncertainty about the state of the economy among consumers. Although scores for our personal financial situation just about remain positive, the big theme is the reduced confidence in the UK economy looking back and ahead. We are viewing our economy over the past 12 months with increasing despondency. The decreasing score on the economy for the next 12 months also shows we are resolutely gloomy about the outlook despite strong GDP numbers.

“The ‘next 12 months’ figure has been low since the June vote to leave the EU as ongoing economic turmoil, inflationary pressures and global anxiety impact our levels of confidence.”

GfK’s sub-index gauging British households’ confidence about the general economic situation over the next 12 months declined five points to -22, while the index tracking sentiment about people’s personal financial situation in the next 12 months was down four points to 2.