Rise in customer confidence reported
Tue, 03 Nov 2009
Consumer confidence has risen to an 18-month high, despite major fears over jobs, it has been claimed.
According to Nielsen and the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the Consumer Confidence Index score was 75 in October, up from 65 in April.
However, the organisations pointed out that this figure was still weak when compared to two or three years ago.
Justin Sargent, managing director at Nielsen said: "This latest poll shows that the confidence of the nation continues to improve, though consumers remain very guarded and we are still a long way from the confidence levels we saw prior to the economic meltdown."
Echoing the comments, BRC director general Stephen Robertson said there is "no question" that the general mood of customers is better than a year ago, when conditions were dire, but improvement has been slow so far.
"Half of consumers believe we'll still be in recession in a year's time. More than half are worried about jobs and their own finances and that will hold back full scale retail recovery well into next year," he stated.
Last month, the Office for National Statistics reported that retail sales remained static during September, the second consecutive month without change.
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