U.K. consumers are more pessimistic about their financial prospects than at any time in at least a decade as the war in Ukraine fans an escalating cost of living crisis, a survey showed Wednesday.
A reading of how households expect their financial situation to change over the coming year plunged by 19.3 percentage points in February to the lowest level since the index began in late 2012, according to a report from YouGov Plc and the Centre for Economics and Business Research.
The drop dragged down overall consumer confidence, with consumers also saying their finances had become worse over the past 30 days.
“Against a backdrop of accelerating inflation and the upcoming increase in the energy price cap, households are understandably nervous about the outlook for their personal finances,” said Kay Neufeld, head of forecasting and thought leadership at CEBR. “The war in Ukraine is likely to further add to spiraling energy costs, based on the turbulence in oil and gas markets in recent days following the imposition of Western sanctions on Russia.”