UK consumer spending in the first quarter fell by most in over five quarter

Omkar Godbole FXStreet Contributor

The inflation-adjusted UK consumer spending fell 1.4 percent year-on-year in the first three months of 2018 - the worst quarterly performance since the fourth quarter of 2012, according to Visa's UK Consumer Spending Index.

Also, spending dropped 2.1% annually in March. The high street face-to-face spending down by 3% year-on-year. Meanwhile, online spending registered a 1.2% decline - its first drop in 10 months and the fastest rate of decline since 2012.

Visa said the weakness in consumer spending reflected a dip in confidence among many households as well as unusually snowy weather, according to Reuters.

The dismal data release has not had any impact on the GBP pairs. As of writing, the GBP/USD pair mildly bid around 1.4250.

Author

Omkar Godbole

FXStreet Contributor

Omkar Godbole, editor and analyst, joined FXStreet after four years as a research analyst at several Indian brokerage companies.

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