Consumer confidence under pressure
A report by the Nationwide has today cast doubts on the UK consumer market recovery with confidence falling from 66 in May to 63 in June, a full 21 points off the February 2010 peak. This is of major concern to the UK government as consumer confidence will play a major part in the eventual recovery of the UK economy. So why has consumer confidence taken a downturn?
There's no doubt that the negative press over the last few weeks has impacted upon consumer confidence, as has the budget which will result in significant job losses in the public sector and potentially in the private sector in the short-term. Hopes that the private sector would fill the vacuum created by job losses in the public sector appear to be a little wide of the mark at the moment although this could change in due course.
In simple terms, the UK economy is going through a very difficult transitional period and we will see more pain in the short term although hopefully we will see more gain in the medium to longer term. There is very little the UK government can do in the short-term to relieve the pain because this is a very important part of the economic cycle, even if this particular cycle has been very volatile and very difficult to control.
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