Can consumers continue to shoulder the recovery?

Yesterday’s GDP figures showed that growth in Q4 was entirely driven by the services sector, suggesting that consumer spending continued to shoulder the economic recovery at the end of last year. And today’s GfK Consumer Confidence Survey provided some further reason for optimism about the near-term outlook for spending. Admittedly, there are some headwinds on the horizon – in particular rising inflation and interest rates, as well as the resumption of the fiscal squeeze. However, we remain optimistic about the outlook for consumer spending over the next few years.