U.K. May Consumer Confidence Matches 11-Month High, GfK Says

By Svenja O’Donnell

May 29 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. consumer confidence matched the highest level in almost a year this month as people became more optimistic that they can weather the recession, GfK NOP said.

An index of sentiment stayed at minus 27, the same as in April, when it was the strongest in 11 months, the market researcher said in a statement today in London. The survey of 2,005 people was conducted between May 1 and May 10.

Retailers’ sentiment about their businesses rose to the highest level since 2007, the Confederation of British Industry said yesterday. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government predicts the British economy will endure its worst recession since World War II this year, pushing up unemployment and deepening the property slump.

Sentiment “is still very low historically, but is at least standing firm in the face of continuing depressed markets and May’s warnings of a possible pandemic,” Rachael Joy, an analyst at GfK, said in the statement. While “worries about job losses and harder times are still very much alive,” the U.K. “appears to be stoical about the continuing economic situation.”

Confidence withstood concern on the global spread of swine flu in May. Britain has the sixth-highest total of confirmed swine flu cases, with 137 people diagnosed with the strain of influenza formally known as H1N1 as of May 27, according to World Health Organization data released yesterday.

Personal Finances

The index of confidence in personal finances for the next year rose two points to minus one, GfK said. That outweighed declines in the gauges for finances in the past year and consumers’ views on the economy.

The housing-market slump has also shown signs of easing. Rightmove Plc says home sellers raised asking prices this month by the most in more than a year. Mortgage approvals rose in April from the previous month, the British Bankers Association said this week.

Unemployment still jumped in the first quarter by the most since 1981 and consumer slumped as the recession intensified.

“Market conditions remain difficult, not least as a result of rising unemployment,” Stephen Goodyear, Chief Executive Officer of Young & Co.’s Brewery Plc, said yesterday in a statement. The company has more pubs on England’s River Thames than any rival.

To contact the reporter on this story: Svenja O’Donnell in London at sodonnell@bloomberg.net.