Weakening in wider economy yet to hit high street (Aug 10)

The recovery in the overall economy appears to be softening. And although the high street appears to doing well for now, we doubt that consumer spending will be far behind. Consumer confidence appears to be on a downward trend. And the improvement in the labour market is unlikely to continue once public sector job cuts begin. It may take time for the continued resilience of spending to fade. But next year, we expect consumer spending to struggle to rise at all in real terms.