UK high street 2017 inflation fears

British consumers are downbeat about the economy’s prospects next year, when higher inflation is likely to erode their spending power, a major survey showed, despite signs that growth has remained robust since June’s Brexit vote.

A big jump in households’ appetite to make major purchases helped market research company GfK’s monthly consumer sentiment index inch up, but this concealed a deterioration in consumers’ outlook for 2017.

Expectations for the year to come are now the weakest since just after June’s vote to leave the EU, and before that they were last lower in April 2013, when the economy had suffered a period of sluggish growth.