020 7898 0500Figures released yesterday showed that British consumers are simply choosing to stay at home as opposed to taking to the high street to indulge in a bit of a shopping. Of course, everything comes with the caveat that the UK experienced a shocking period of bad weather, but even taking that into account, the figures aren’t exactly encouraging. In the past two months, there has been a drop of some 4.8% – worse than was recorded in the same months during the 2009 recession.
It is easy to think such things shouldn’t concern those of us who do not have a stake in the high street firms who will struggle as a result, but more and more well-known UK businesses are going into administration, with the loss of hundreds (if not thousands) of jobs. The knock-on effects of these events eventually filter through to all of us and it is hoped that something can be done about it sooner rather than later. Let’s hope the sun will encourage more of us to shop, but the truth is that it is likely to be further increases in average earnings that make a real difference. We’ll see the figures later today.
We will also see the unemployment rate for March in what is an otherwise quiet week for UK economic data.
