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LONDON — Brits are more worried about the state of their finances and their ability to spend than at any time since the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote, a closely watched survey of consumer confidence has shown.
GfK's monthly consumer confidence monitor fell to a score of -12 in July, a number last seen in GfK's July 2016 data, making it the joint worst score since Britain voted to leave the European Union.
That represented a fall of two points from -10 in June, and was well below the long-run average of -9, which takes into account all data collected since 1974.
"Consumer confidence across the UK has fallen to the level last seen in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote," Joe Staton, GfK's head of market dynamics said in a statement.
"All bets must now be on a further drift downwards in confidence. Yes, employment is booming, but wages have fallen in real terms since 2008 once inflation is taken into account."
GfK's personal finance reading, a sub-measure that makes up the overall confidence figure, declined by one point to -2. The outlook for the general economic outlook category declined by six points to -31.
GfK's numbers come just two days after official data from the Office for National Statistics showed that the British economy grew by just 0.3% during the second quarter of 2017, just expanding from 0.2% growth at the beginning of the year.
Here's the chart:
GfK Consumer confidence JulyGfK
"The economy has experienced a notable slowdown in the first half of this year," ONS Head of GDP Darren Morgan said in a statement released alongside the data.
"While services such as retail and film production & distribution showed some improvement in the second quarter, a weaker performance from construction and manufacturing pulled down overall growth.”