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The British households prioritize the savings against expenses, since the dark economic prospects despite lower credit costs that provide a certain relief.
February was viewed by 30 percent of consumers as a “good time to save”, as in January, as the data from the research company GfK showed on Friday.
The number is only shy compared to the 33 percent after the financial crisis and well above minus 2 percent between 2008 and the end of 2020 before the Livelihood And a strong increase in interest rates.
The separate index of overall GRP consumer confidence is how people have their personal finances and broader economic outlook on 2 percentage points to minus 20, supported by the quarter-point rate of the Bank of England at the beginning of this month.
The survey was carried out in the first half of February because the concerns rose Higher prices and work cuts After tax increase in the autumn budget.
Officially Data published on Wednesday showed that inflation in January increased more than expected to a 10-month high of 3 percent, while the economy hardly grew in the second half of 2024.
Neil Bellamy, director of Consumer Insights at Nielseniq/GfK, said the results pointed out that people “put money away for a rainy day (because) they don’t have much trust in the way the economy goes”.
Many households save more than “because they believe that there are more problems”, which means “less money in the economy”, he added.
The GfK-Zubindex persecution of the general economic situation rose by 3 points a month, but was still deeply negative in minus 31.
The survey suggests that the gap between strong wage growth and weak consumer expenditure could be continued and that the prospects are limited to economic growth.
On Tuesday, official data showed that the inflation adaptation wages adapted in the three months to December have increased the fastest since 2021. However, the per capita editions in the household fell in the third quarter of 2024 and contributed to the weak GDP growth.
The sub-index pursues the proportion of consumers that it was a good time to make large purchases in order to achieve three points, and expanded the recovery from the low stalls at the peak of living costs, but was still negative in minus 17. It was still negative in the six years. It was still negative in the six years. The average reading was positive before pandemic.
The biggest individual improvement was how consumers saw their personal finances for the coming year, with an increase of four points rose to plus two measures from the negative area.
Bellamy said that the BO decision of reducing the interest rates from 4.75 percent to 4.5 percent this month had “brightened up the mood for some people”, such as mortgage owners and potential home buyers.
But he added: “The majority still fight with living costs that are far from over. The prices are still increasing above the target of the Boe; Gas and electricity invoices remain a challenge for many households. “
Boe-Tariff-Setter Catherine Mann told the Financial Times that the slowdown of consumer demand was the reason voted for a jumbo half-point cut At the meeting of the central bank on February 6th.
“We have observed rising real income for some time and with rising real incomes, consumption should be more robust. I thought it would happen last year. I talked about saving dry powder for consumption. That didn’t come about, ”she said in an interview.
