Consumer wellbeing ‘worsening’
January 24, 2008 by admin
Filed under News, News-Credit-Cards
Many consumers are facing increasing strain on their day-to-day living costs and spiralling levels of debt, according to research from financial experts. 
Findings from the Financial Reality Index from the Alliance Trust, which analyses factors underlying consumer wellbeing, has revealed its biggest fall in 18 months.
The index decreased by 10 per cent, from 88.6 in the previous quarter to 79.7 per cent in the fourth, one of the lowest levels in the study’s 11 year history.
Shona Dobbie, head of the Alliance Trust Research Centre, said: “Our measure of consumer wellbeing shows a worsening picture not only for household budgets, but for consumers’ net wealth and the economy as well.”
She added that, although consumer spending does not appear to have taken stock of the financial reality, “we expect consumer spending to slow further over the next year”.
Over spending for the past two years is supposedly to blame for the current pressures upon budgets with higher food and fuel prices and heavy levels of debt and mortgage payments.
Meanwhile research from the Alliance Trust has shown that the over-75s and under 30s suffer the worst rates of inflation.
