Consumer confidence falls again |
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| Written by Gary Howes | |
| Wednesday, 03 December 2008 | |
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Nationwide shows that November was another bad month as consumers economic worries hit spending.
Nationwide (LON:POB) has today revealed that consumer confidence fell in November. The building society's Consumer Confidence Index dropped last month, despite falling fuel and food prices and the Bank of England's 1.5 per cent cut in interest rates.The news from Nationwide follows similar news released by Experian; which shows that discounting has failed to boost shopper numbers on UK high streets. Nationwide said the positives of the rate cut were outweighed by the "significant impact" of concerns about the UK officially entering recession, rising unemployment and continuing turbulence on the financial markets. Overall, 76 per cent of consumers now believe the economy is in a generally bad condition. Another 45 per cent believe it will be in a worse state in six months' time, reflecting a realisation that a quick turnaround in the UK's economic fortunes is unlikely, Nationwide said. The Experian report showed that discounting failed to boost shopper numbers as Experian Retail FootFall Index drops 0.9% (November 2008 v November 2007) with Scotland falling furthest (-5.0%). Retail business failures have risen 21% in November, this massive increase can be attributed to the well documented failures of Woolworths and MFI. And it seams that consumers are turning online in increasing numbers as UK Internet searches for discount vouchers increase by 133% over the last 12 months. Visits to voucher websites in particular are up by 45% over the last 12 months. |
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