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Omicron and inflation chip away at UK consumer confidence – GfK
Published by maria gbaf
Posted on December 17, 2021
2 min readLast updated: January 28, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
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Published by maria gbaf
Posted on December 17, 2021
2 min readLast updated: January 28, 2026
UK consumer confidence declined in December due to Omicron and inflation concerns, with the GfK index dropping to -15. The Bank of England raised interest rates to address inflation.
LONDON (Reuters) – People in Britain turned a bit more pessimistic this month, after the emergence of the fast-spreading Omicron coronavirus variant and inflation worries hit spending plans, a survey showed on Friday.
The GfK Consumer Confidence Index dipped to -15 having risen in November for the first time in four months to -14.
Joe Staton, GfK’s client strategy director, said people were slightly less confident about their personal finances and the economy over the next 12 months, making them less inclined to make major purchases before Christmas.
“We end 2021 on a depressing note and it looks like it will be a bleak midwinter for UK consumer confidence, possibly with new COVID curbs, and little likelihood of any real uplift in the first months of 2022,” he said.
The Bank of England raised interest rates on Thursday for the first time since slashing them at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, as it sought to head off growing inflation pressures.
Britain’s headline inflation rate hit a decade-high 5.1% in the 12 months to November.
The GfK survey of 2,000 people was conducted between Dec. 1 and Dec. 13.
(Reporting by William Schomberg, editing by David Milliken)
The article discusses the decline in UK consumer confidence due to the Omicron variant and inflation concerns.
The index fell to -15 in December, down from -14 in November.
The Bank of England raised interest rates to address growing inflation pressures.
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