David Smith examines why consumer spending has been unusually weak for this stage of the recovery and is likely to remain so
Can it really be all that long ago when things were so very different? Though politicians were wary of echoing Harold Macmillan during the long upturn Britain’s households genuinely had never had it so good. All their Christmases came at once.
Credit of course was easy to obtain. Real incomes went in one direction – up. There was a strong pound and the so-called China effect to push import prices down. VAT had not been increased for years. House prices rose and rose again boosting household wealth and allowing those who wanted to tap into it.
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