Consumer confidence falls in May after brief spike in April

Consumer confidence in the UK fell during May, with cooling housing prices and a decline in job security emerging as contributing factors.

The drop comes after April’s figures showed that it rose to the highest point since the start of last year.

The latest analysis from the Consumer Confidence Index – from YouGov and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) – shows that consumer sentiment stands at 108.4 this month, down from 109.8 in April.

While any score over 100 means more consumers are confident than unconfident, it is still notably below where it was before the EU referendum in 2016.

YouGov collects consumer confidence through conducting over 6000 interviews per month. Respondents are asked about household finances, property prices, job security and business activity, both over the past 30 days and looking ahead to the next year.

The data shows that five measures have declined this month, while three have improved.

There has been a notable decline in people’s job security over the coming year, with the score decreasing by four points, its biggest monthly fall since July 2013.

Both the backward and forward-looking house value and business activity metrics have also cooled in May.

However, household finances over the past 30 days have improved for the fifth month in a row, while anticipated household finances over the coming 12 months are at their highest level since September 2016.

“Consumers have taken note of the UK economy’s recent woes and adjusted their expectations accordingly,” Cebr head of macroeconomics Nina Skero said.

“The measure of future job security has seen the greatest fall in nearly five years and prospects for house values and business activity are also looking bleaker.

“If confidence doesn’t recover soon it could damage Q2 growth prospects, which is especially undesirable given the weak performance at the start of the year.”

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