Consumer Confidence
Consumer confidence directly impacts the UK jewellery trade, influencing spending on luxury items and shaping retail performance. For jewellers, suppliers, and manufacturers, tracking shifts in consumer sentiment is vital for forecasting demand, planning inventory, and refining marketing strategies. Jewellery Focus delivers expert coverage on consumer confidence trends, market analysis, and insights into how economic and social factors affect purchasing behaviour across the sector.
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Feb- 2024 -23 FebruaryRetailers
Consumer confidence falls in February
UK consumer confidence dropped two points in February to -21, according to GfK’s long-running index. The survey revealed that four measures were down and one was unchanged in comparison to last month’s announcement. The index measuring changes in personal finances during the last year was down two points at -14.…
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Dec- 2023 -18 DecemberEconomy
Consumer confidence improves during December
Consumer confidence improved two points during December to -22 as sentiment improved ahead of Christmas. All five measures were up in comparison to last month’s announcement. The index measuring changes in personal finances during the last year is up two points at -14; this is 14 points better than December…
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Aug- 2023 -8 AugustEconomy
Retail sales growth slows in July amid heavy rain
The UK’s total retail sales increased by 1.5% in the four weeks to 29 July, against the 2.3% growth experienced in the same month last year. This was below the three-month average growth of 3.5% and the 12-month average growth of 3.9%, according to BRC data. This lacklustre growth in…
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Apr- 2023 -17 AprilManufacturers
De Beers sales ‘in line with expectations’
De Beers has posted $540m (£437m) worth of diamond sales for the period between 27 March 2023 and 11 April 2023. This number is a decrease year-on-year, for the same period in 2022 De Beers saw a sales value of $566m (£458m). This number for cycle three is up from…
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Jan- 2023 -27 JanuaryRetailers
Vacancy rates improve to 13.8% in Q4
The overall vacancy rate improved to 13.8% in the fourth quarter of 2022, which was 0.1 percentage points better than Q3 and 0.6 percentage points better than the same period last year, according to the latest BRC/LDC monitor. This was the fifth consecutive quarter of falling vacancy rates. All locations…
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23 JanuaryEconomy
Consumer confidence improves for first time in 15 months
UK consumer confidence in the final quarter of 2022 improved by half (+0.6) a percentage point, according to the latest Deloitte Consumer Tracker, marking the end of a 15-month period of consecutive decline. Deloitte said overall confidence was boosted by “significant” quarter-on-quarter improvement in sentiment towards levels of debt (+3.8…
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10 JanuaryRetailers
Retail sales rise 6.9% over Christmas
The BRC has reported that sales on a total basis increased by 6.9% in December 2022, compared with the prior increase of 2.1% in December 2021. These figures are said to be above both the three-month average growth of 4.4% and the 12-month average growth of 3.1%. Meanwhile, the UK’s…
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Nov- 2022 -17 NovemberEconomy
Natural Diamond Council launches Assure 2.0 portal
The Natural Diamond Council has announced the launch of the new Assure 2.0 online portal. The updated portal aims to enable all purchasers of diamond verification instruments to browse through the directory, understand the features and analyse the results of the new series of Assure testing. The Assure 2.0 portal…
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Oct- 2022 -11 OctoberRetailers
Retail sales rise 2.2% in September
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) Sales Monitor reports that, on a total basis, sales increased by 2.2% in September, against an increase of 0.6% in September 2021. According to the BRC, the UK retail sales also increased 1.8% on a like-for-like basis from September 2021, when they had reportedly decreased…
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Sep- 2022 -23 SeptemberEconomy
Consumer confidence plummets to record low in September
UK consumer confidence has plummeted to a record low of -49% in September, the lowest since 1974, according to the latest research from GfK. It comes amid the cost of living crisis as households struggle with soaring energy bills and inflation. Four measures were down in comparison to the 19…
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