By Daniel Hunter
The latest reading from the GfK Consumer Confidence Barometer shows a slight increase for the month of May.
The Index increased by five points, highlighting that consumers are slowly regaining confidence.
“There are now some real signs that consumers, while hardly confident, are moving out of the feeling of despondency that the country has been mired in for the last year or so," Nick Moon, Managing Director of Social Research at GfK, commented.
"The current figure of -22 is fully 7 points higher than in any month of 2012, other than the -22 observed in November which we have to assume was a blip.
"The 12 month moving average, always a good measure of the underlying trend, was -29 at the start of 2012, -30 in the middle, and -29 again at the end. So far in 2013 it has risen to -28 and now -27, underlining this sense of improvement.
"But before we get too carried away, we should note that even after this rise, the Index is still lower than it was for the whole of 2010, and massively worse than it was for an entire decade from 1997 to 2007.
"We may be climbing out of the pit of economic pessimism, but there’s a long way to go until the public becomes neutral, let alone positive.”
Personal Financial Situation
The Index measuring changes in personal finances during the last 12 months has increased by four points this month to -20; this is three points higher than May 2012.
The forecast for personal finances over the next 12 months has increased two points this month to -5; this is four points higher than this time last year.
General Economic Situation
The measure for the general economic situation of the country during the last 12 months has increased nine points to -44; this is fourteen points higher than May 2012.
An expectation for the general economic situation over the next 12 months has increased eight points this month to -18; this is eight points higher than this time last year.
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