Consumer confidence climbs to a two-year high on a 'firmer footing'
GfK's August reading strengthened alongside rising services activity.
Consumer confidence reached a two-year high in August on GfK's long-running barometer, as services activity strengthened — evidence, in the Guardian's summing-up, of an economy on a firmer footing.
Confidence surveys earn their keep as leading indicators of spending, and this one moved in the same week the composite PMI hit a four-month high, which makes the signal harder to dismiss as noise.
The dissenting voice is the CBI's retail survey, which turned sharply negative in the same month. Confident consumers who aren't yet buying more is a plausible resolution — sentiment usually moves first.
For the Bank of England, resilient confidence cuts against an early rate cut; for everyone else, it is simply good news.