Emergency budget knocks consumer confidence
Despite the fact that the UK government was effectively forced into announcing an emergency budget on 22 June, as any government would have been, it seems as though this has impacted upon consumer confidence in the short-term. A report by uSwitch confirms that 45% of people in the UK are concerned about their finances and 49% now feel worse off than ever before. So what can George Osborne do to turn around the situation?
There is no doubt that George Osborne has a battle on his hands but the frank and open nature of discussions regarding budget cuts has taken some of the pressure off George Osborne and David Cameron. In line with the Canadian experience, where massive budget cuts were brought in after discussing these with the public, this is in part a blame shifting game because the UK public will be unable to criticise David Cameron if he follows their lead.
However, there is no doubt that there will be significant short-term pain for the UK economy, UK businesses and UK consumers and we could indeed see consumer confidence fall further in the weeks ahead. However, the battle to rebuild the UK economy and consumer confidence will then begin in earnest with all of the bad news out of the way.
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