ECONOMISTS’ VIEWS: ARE RETAIL SPENDING AND CONSUMER MORALE ON THE UP?
DAVID MILLER | CHEVIOT ASSET MANAGEMENT
“As inflation pressures dissipate, the lack of wage growth becomes less of a problem – people realise they have money to spend and get their confidence back. Yet it’s too early for a recovery to be apparent”
MICHAEL HEWSON | CMC MARKETS
“It’s going in the right direction. When I saw retail figures in January I thought we were reading the wrong line. Is it sustainable? Unclear. These consumer confidence figures still aren’t great on a long term basis.”
HOWARD ARCHER | IHS GLOBAL INSIGHT
“We expect the CBI survey to show that the balance of retailers reporting that sales were up year-on-year rose to -12 per cent in February … This would still be appreciably below the overall average of +3 per cent in 2011.”