Consumer back on form

Last week broke the recent run of disappointing news and went some way to calming fears that the economy is slowing abruptly. Perhaps most reassuring was the pick-up in retail sales growth, given that the economy has recently been reliant on consumer spending to keep the recovery going.

Indeed, we think that consumers should prevent the economy from slowing too much this quarter, even if the impact of referendum uncertainty on business confidence and spending intensifies in the final weeks before the vote.