Payday Loans

Consumer confidence sours further

London (Ask4paydayloan) Nov 5, 2008 : Consumer confidence has been hit severely to reach its lowest point in the last three decades. According to a survey, consumers' reluctance to go for major purchases has reached its lowest level since the records started to be kept in 1982.

Underlined by the precarious position of the UK economy amid the global financial crisis, the consumer confidence index has fallen to -36 in October. According to the research company Gfk NoP the index stood at -32 in September.

"Consumers are not at all confident about buying major purchases as rising food and energy bills leave them increasingly worried about keeping up with payments, and saving has also seen a considerable drop, possibly due to fears of the safety of savings," Rachael Joy of GfK NOP told.

Witnessing its lowest reading since 1982, the 'climate for major purchases index' crashed to -43 point. Quite evidently the retailers are heavily suffering. John Lewis Partnership has made it public that sales from its 27 departmental outlets came down by 9.8 percent on the past year.

The "now is a good time to save" index came down nine points in the month to reach +9. It is the lowest figure since early 2004. May be the worries about the banking system and prevailing low interest rates have forced the people to go for hoarding cash.

"Even the reduction of the interest rate and lower petrol prices are unlikely to have a significant effect on confidence in the upcoming months as consumers brace themselves for what they see as a very difficult economic time over the Christmas period," GfK NOP's Joy told on the subject.

Britishers' expectations regarding their own finances and about the economy as a whole remained quite sceptical. The index measuring people's understanding about the state of the economy in the last one year crashed to its lowest level since 1992, when UK was in the throes of recession.

About 50% of the responses in the GfK study came before the Bank of England decided for an emergency cut in the interest rates on October 8 and the other half came afterwards.

Other Financial News:

Sterling all set to go down further
UK introduces a fast paced loan scheme
Big stakes in RBS and HBOS, courtesy Bailout