One other brighter than anticipated set of financial numbers out immediately point out the UK has an opportunity of avoiding a much-tipped recession this yr.

Client confidence climbed quicker than forecast to minus 38 factors this month, up seven factors from minus 45 factors in January, in response to analysis agency Progress for Information’s index which has been operating because the Seventies.

Regardless of the shock upturn, confidence continues to be operating at traditionally low ranges after rebounding from the bottom studying ever when Liz Truss took cost of the nation in September.

The survey is the most recent in a string of information that point out the UK economic system is holding up significantly better than specialists had forecast only a few months in the past.

Numbers out earlier this month revealed the nation narrowly prevented a recession on the finish of final yr, whereas the Workplace for Nationwide Statistics final week stated inflation in January fell for the third straight month to 10.1 per cent, a quicker descent than analysts had forecast.

That physique of proof has prompted Metropolis economists to trim their projections for a way a lot gross home product will drop this yr.

“Regardless of extensively reported headwinds of inflation persevering with to outstrip wage rises, and the continued family problem from the cost-of-living disaster, shoppers have all of the sudden proven extra optimism concerning the state of their private funds and the final financial state of affairs, particularly for the approaching yr,” Joe Staton, consumer technique director at GfK, stated.

Whereas inflation is within the early throes of a sustained decline this yr that some Metropolis specialists have predicted will carry it right down to the Financial institution of England’s two per cent by Christmas, wage progress is anticipated to path it for a lot of the yr, delivering a file hit to spending energy.

Financial institution governor Andrew Bailey and co’s ten successive rate of interest hikes to a 15-year excessive of 4 per cent has amplified the squeeze on household budgets.

All of GfK’s measurements that generate the general shopper confidence index strengthened in February.

Households’ expectations of the UK economic system over the following yr improved 11 factors, the most important rise of any class, serving to to tug their confidence of their private funds over the identical interval up 9 factors.

Analysts cautioned this month’s confidence rise could also be a flash within the pan.

“The headline shopper confidence rating continues to be severely depressed and the temper in addition to the economic system stay a great distance off pre-lockdown ranges, however a bit shopper resilience is likely to be what we have to soften any downturn in 2023. Nonetheless, many challenges stay and this can be nothing greater than a bubble of hope – and bubbles at all times burst,” Staton added.