Consumer confidence hits 2 year high

Blacklight

stueyhants wrote: »

The stats don't back up this argument

Total debt levels have been increasing, total secured lending on dwellings at the end of January 2010 stood at £1,237bn. The twelve-month growth rate was 1.0%.


Total household debted is still increasing; £1.463 tr in January, £1.46 tr in December 2009, £1.459 tr in November 2009. Link:

http://www.creditaction.org.uk/

Interesting, although not long ago the high street banks were preaching that they were flush with cash as current accounts had seen massive increases in positive balances.

[edit] could be due to Christmas actually.

Really2

stueyhants wrote: »

Total household debted is still increasing; £1.463 tr in January, £1.46 tr in December 2009, £1.459 tr in November 2009. Link:

http://www.creditaction.org.uk/

Could be down to new FTB's entering the market and increasing their personal debt significantly.
Seeing consumer debt has decreased.

stueyhants

Blacklight wrote: »

Interesting, although not long ago the high street banks were preaching that they were flush with cash as current accounts had seen massive increases in positive balances.

[edit] could be due to Christmas actually.

Last year there was lots of fluidity in the deposit markets due to fear of banks collapsing, state guarantees at banks such as Northern rock, competitive IR from NS&I and stock market changes. Using high street banks deposits last year as a barometer for uk deposits as a whole is probably not the best indicator. This year with things in the economy a lot more stable then it might be a more useful indicator.

stueyhants

Really2 wrote: »

Could be down to new FTB's entering the market and increasing their personal debt significantly.
Seeing consumer debt has decreased.

Probably likely. It will be interesting to see how it changes over the next few months what with the lower approval figures in Jan.

Really2

stueyhants wrote: »

Probably likely. It will be interesting to see how it changes over the next few months what with the lower approval figures in Jan.

It should increase still I suppose as each new purchase is new debt. Only way it would not be is if gross lending was negative.

Thrugelmir

Blacklight wrote: »

I disagree. For the most part people have been saving and not taking on extra debt for the last eighteen months (there's been no credit to take in fact). When interest rates do rise they'll only rise back to what they were before.

People have been making hay while the sun shines and they all know it'll come to and end.

No indication of a major change in savings habits across the nation.

What's different to previous recessions is low inflation and low interest rates.

As people receive below inflation pay rises, pay higher rates of tax and pay higher interest rates. Those in work will understand what a reccession actually is.

So far for many the impact has been negligble.

de1amo

if interest rates rise and taxes with low pc wage increases it all points to mortgage affordability coming down thus a consequential drop in house price or am i being simple! people who are over leveraged will go under and lead to a general deflation of property prices-exactly what happened in the late 70s a bust! after a boom

Thrugelmir

de1amo wrote: »

if interest rates rise and taxes with low pc wage increases it all points to mortgage affordability coming down thus a consequential drop in house price or am i being simple! people who are over leveraged will go under and lead to a general deflation of property prices-exactly what happened in the late 70s a bust! after a boom

No not being simple at all. Property prices will more than likely stagnate in general terms. It is going to take some years to unravel the financial mess of UK plc.

de1amo

the mess of the late 70s was sorted by wage inflation and selling the 'family silver'-BT british gas etc and building the city financial market--i cant see we have much left to sell and the city is dwindling to nothing as the ship sinks in the mess it led us to!!--plus oil is set to run out in the next 10 years--we need a miracle to cure UK PLC

Mr.Brown_4

Can anyone tell me what a consumer confidence survey is, what does it mean. What questions do they ask and how many / who do they ask it of? Is it stopping someone in the street and saying " are you confident?", and they say "zippy de doo dah, I am out of my head" and they put that down as a yes.

Seriously, I've always wondered about it. Seems like an are you happy or sad question almost, but I am sure it is a lot more scientific?

edit: btw I found some boring stuff in Wiki.