Jim Power

In Ireland, we had the Consumer Conference reading for April.

In March, the reading fell heavily to 56.7.

That was the first survey that captured the Iran war.

But it fell from 56.7 in March to 53.3 in April.

So it's down by 18.3% since February, between February and April.

So no surprises there.

I mean, obviously, in the midst of this energy crisis and cost of living crisis, consumer confidence is going to be seriously battered.

Today, we got the wholesale

price index in Ireland, but wholesale electricity prices in the month of March alone increased by 19.2%.

So we're going to see the second round effects of that feeding into both business and consumer electricity bills.

So, you know, the

Iran war impacting everywhere, perhaps except the UK, Chris, actually, because in March, retail sales were up by a strong 0.7%.

But a lot of that was due to a 6.1% jump in fuel sales, because people stocking up with fuel.

So maybe, well, sorry, not maybe, that is

and an impact from the war.

Consumer confidence, very weak in the UK, fell to minus 25 in April, which is the lowest since October 2023.

And that's a trend that's actually coming across everywhere, as I'll demonstrate.

On the purchasing managers' indices side, in the UK, the composite index actually jumped from 50.3% to 52%.

with services particularly up from 50.2 to 52 and manufacturing up from 51 to 53.6.

And there definitely is an element of stockpiling happening there and production being ramped up.