Telegraph - UK consumer confidence rises sharply

julieq

No-one said that. But anyone planning big ticket expenditure anyway is going to tend to move it to before the tax rise than defer it until after it. If you've got money to spend and you want to spend it on something bit, you're going to do it now rather than on Jan 1st.

And there are enough people in that situation to make it a significant factor. As was pointed out, this happened prior to the rise at the end of last year.

phil_b_2

Chris2685 wrote: »

You really think anyone outside of this forum is going to consider that VAT could go up soon, so they should start spending thousands on goods? What a load of rubbish. I expect very few people are even thinking about that.

haha, this is where some people go wrong on forums like these, they over-estimate joe publics mentality. Most people dont even know what the definition of a recession is and how it comes about, let alone the implications of VAT hikes or what the future holds.

mystic_trev

Chris2685 wrote: »

You really think anyone outside of this forum is going to consider that VAT could go up soon, so they should start spending thousands on goods? What a load of rubbish. I expect very few people are even thinking about that.

It's not could go up soon, it's will go up soon, on the 4th January next year! As for people not worrying about it..........

A rise in the standard rate of VAT from 17.5pc to 20pc is widely predicted in Tuesday's emergency Budget. A rise in VAT is the main concern for 60pc of consumers, compared with 42pc who were most worried about an increase in interest rates, according to research by uSwitch.com, the price comparison service

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/tax/7842979/Budget-2010-VAT-increase-bigger-concern-than-rise-in-interest-rates.html

Generali

Blacklight wrote: »

What are you trying to imply?

House price rises over the course of the last two years have reversed those seen in 2007.

The largest economic growth seen in nine years reversed the negative growth seen during the recession.

I'm not sure what your point is.

To be slightly more accurate, nominal house prices rises have reversed most (perhaps 2/3rds) of the falls seen in 2007. In real (inflation adjusted) terms prices are 15+% down still.

FTBFun

I'm not sure about the VAT thing.

Say someone spends £20,000 on a car pre VAT. At 17.5% VAT would be £3,500, at 20% £4,000. £500 isn't that much if you can afford to spunk £20k on a new car.

Chris2685

mystic_trev wrote: »

A rise in the standard rate of VAT from 17.5pc to 20pc is widely predicted in Tuesday's emergency Budget. A rise in VAT is the main concern for 60pc of consumers, compared with 42pc who were most worried about an increase in interest rates, according to research by uSwitch.com, the price comparison service



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/tax/7842979/Budget-2010-VAT-increase-bigger-concern-than-rise-in-interest-rates.html

That's all well and good spouting statistics, but what were the options in the poll? If one of the options was 'are you more worried about who will win Big Brother', perhaps the outcome would have been even more shocking?

The fact is that a high proportion of people in the UK would not be spending all of their money right now on something that will happen in over 3 months time.

Strings

FTBFun wrote: »

I'm not sure about the VAT thing.

Say someone spends £20,000 on a car pre VAT. At 17.5% VAT would be £3,500, at 20% £4,000. £500 isn't that much if you can afford to spunk £20k on a new car.

tend to agree, while I would prefer to do it cheaper it would never stop me from buying it

Degenerate

Blacklight wrote: »

confounding those who tried hard to talk down the market recently into self-feeding downward spiral.

The Telegraph really have turned against Cameron and Osborne...

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Generali wrote: »

To be slightly more accurate, nominal house prices rises have reversed most (perhaps 2/3rds) of the falls seen in 2007. In real (inflation adjusted) terms prices are 15+% down still.

Excellent news.

So now the bears can go out and bag themselves a bargain, even with prices now close to the old peak, so long as they are content in the knowledge that "real" (inflation adjusted) house prices are still down 15%.

Looks like the bears are getting their crash after all. Exactly the same way it happened last time. Mostly "real" decreases, as nominal prices dropped a bit but then stagnated.

You'd think they'd be more grateful....:D