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Consumer confidence has – for the first time in over a year – shown signs of improvement, with GfK NOP’s monthly report seeing a rise of four points.
However, GfK is warning that this rise may not be down to a general shift in consumer confidence, but rather a boost in external factors such as the UK’s performance in the Beijing Olympics.
"We have seen a small improvement in Consumer Confidence in August, but this should not be seen as a turnaround in core sentiment," warned Rachel Joy of the consumer confidence team at GfK NOP.
"This improvement could be down to a number of recent factors, which are mostly of short-term influence, such as cheaper petrol offers, summer holidays happening or just a general feeling of ‘things can’t get any worse can they?’.
"In particular, winning gold medals in the Olympics seems to have had a lifting effect. When we looked at the Index score before and after the Olympic weekend, the score rose three points between the first and second weekend," added Joy.
"This, combined with summer holiday euphoria, may have helped lift consumers’ perceptions of their personal situation and the general economy.”