By Ian McConnell
The last six months of consumer confidence index gains have been lost amid the fuel crisis and labour shortages, according to the latest analysis from YouGov and the Centre for Economics and Business Research.
The pair’s consumer confidence index fell in September by 2.3 points to 110.5, a level last seen in April when coronavirus-related restrictions were only just starting to lift. The outlook on household finances has worsened considerably, the analysis found. Many households reported a deterioration in finances in the past month. YouGov conducts more than 6,000 consumer confidence interviews a month.
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: 160-mile round trip by ferry and road is bank branch axe reality
Darren Yaxley, director of reputation research at YouGov, said: “YouGov’s consumer confidence index has been consistently increasing since the record low of May 2020 to a high of 113.6 this summer, until now. The gains made during this year’s summer have been undone and scores are now back to a level last seen six months ago in April."
He added: “The past few months of rising prices, bill increases and a fuel crisis brought on by labour shortages have decimated Britons’ confidence in their personal finances for the coming year, meaning Brits are less and less confident that that their household finances will improve.
READ MORE: Ian McConnell: Brexit could have taken many forms. Cheshire Cat Boris Johnson chose this one
"In fact, the decrease in outlook for household finances is the second largest on record, indicating the extent of the uncertainty among the public. With almost every metric declining apart from job security and home value for the past 30 days, September’s consumer confidence index is a sober read.”
Kay Neufeld, head of forecasting and thought leadership at YouGov, said: "September’s drop in the consumer confidence index comes as no surprise following a month of headline-dominating crises, from the spike in gas prices and energy providers going bust to the recent fuel shortages and empty supermarket shelves.
"While inflation has been on the rise for a while, the effects have started to become more tangible in recent weeks for the average consumer, further exacerbated by the termination of several government pandemic support schemes such as the Universal Credit uplift and the furlough scheme."
She added: "The largest decreases in this month’s index were recorded in the household finance measures, with consumers concerned about the erosion of their purchasing power through higher inflation. Decreases in the business activity and the forward-looking job security measures further confirm that the economic recovery has hit a speed bump.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here