Consumer spending weakens further

SPENDING remains weak and consumers are still very cautious but latest figures show they may now have prepared for the worst.

The latest KBC Bank Ireland/ ESRI consumer sentiment index weakened in April to 57.9 compared to 59.5 in March, and a value of 65.6 in April 2010.

However, KBC economist Austin Hughes said the surprise in terms of the April sentiment results is not that Irish consumer confidence weakened but that the decline was very limited.