C'mon you lot - 'tis the season to spend!
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What is it that's making UK consumers so not confident?
Brexit?
The weather? Day after day of cold and rain would do it for me :-D
Here's GK (via Reuters):
- Expectations for the year to come are now the weakest since just after June's vote to leave the European Union, and before that they were last lower in April 2013
- "Confidence in the general economic situation for the UK has collapsed in the face of uncertainty about the future both at home and abroad," GfK analyst Joe Staton
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Other UK info:
Wages look unlikely to keep pace with inflation according to pay data company XpertHR
Average pay rises at large companies in the three months to November stood at 1.6 percent compared with 1.5 percent in the three months to October
- "Employers have acted with caution over the past year when it comes to rewarding employees, and we expect this to continue when pay bargaining gets into full swing again in the New Year"
Britain built more cars in the first eleven months of 2016 than any full year since 2004
- putting the sector on course to make more vehicles this year than in any other since 1999
- Just over 1.61 million cars were made in the year to November
- Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) data
- "These latest results are the product of significant investments made over the past few years," SMMT CEO Mike Hawes said. "(It) will continue only if we can maintain the competitive trading conditions that have enabled the UK to become an automotive success story."
(via various Reuters reports)