Consumer confidence 'knocked by Bank'

14/08/2008

The Bank of England is knocking Britain's consumer confidence levels due to its indecisiveness, an industry expert has claimed.

Jane Baker at financial website Fool.co.uk that the bank was "sitting on the fence", while people struggled with rising prices and tightening credit conditions.

The comments follow the release of the latest Nationwide Consumer Confidence Index, which detected an eleven point drop last month.

Overall consumer confidence levels were found to be 18 per cent lower than June, and 46 per cent lower than July 2007.

"It’s hardly a shock that consumer confidence in the UK economy has been shaken - the Bank of England looks like it’s stuck between a rock and a hard place with interest rates, finding it difficult to stem inflation without hiking up borrowing costs. But sitting on the fence isn’t helping to put consumers’ minds at rest," Ms Baker said.

"Many people are feeling the effects day-to-day of higher living costs together with rising mortgage repayments. And the future for the economy doesn’t look bright with the threat of a recession still looming alongside a weakening housing market and poor job prospects."

Tags; Current UK Economy, Debt Management and Banking,

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