Indo today: Consumer confidence back or is it more economic marketing drivel?

andrewdeerpark

Talking to several businesses in the south east area and they are saying the opposite especially with regards luxury car segment.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/shoppers-give-economy-a-boost-1982491.html

This smacks of marketing bull trying to get a confidence snowball rolling through false statements in an attempt to get the punters out for the last 4 days. How about some balance in the article and not just feel good contributors with an interest (well paid marketing business goons) in talking a false sense of confidence. It this not what got us in trouble in the first place: the lack of truth!

The luxury car segment gets no benefit from scrappage, cheapest BMW is 26K, plus car finance is near impossible.

Everyone I am talking is saying they are spending less, maybe the Indo are missing those celtic tiger advertising revenue days and trying to piece together a rattlebag bunch of marketing BS artists.

Or am I wrong?

gally74

to be honest i think it has picked up too, i think the budget was actually a relief for a lot of people,

andrewdeerpark

Still have 12% unemployment

A lot of people worried about their jobs in the new year.

Lack of finance for anyone borderline - main scrappage candidates

Agree their is massive savings in the country and you could say we are close to the bottom in second hand car prices, still do not see the bottom of house prices.

The official CSO figures and figures for the few publically listed retailers in the new year will be interesting...

nesf

Consumer confidence has apparently picked up since the Budget, most likely because people now know exactly what they're going to be hit with in the New Year in terms of earnings loss etc.

Whether this is a temporary surge or the beginning of a sustained recovery (or even a sustained improvement over 2009 numbers) remains to be seen.

thebman

nesf wrote: »

Consumer confidence has apparently picked up since the Budget, most likely because people now know exactly what they're going to be hit with in the New Year in terms of earnings loss etc.

Whether this is a temporary surge or the beginning of a sustained recovery (or even a sustained improvement over 2009 numbers) remains to be seen.

A lot of shops have started pre-xmas sales too though on food items and everything else so if prices rise in Jan, we might see a fall in confidence again.

nesf

thebman wrote: »

A lot of shops have started pre-xmas sales too though on food items and everything else so if prices rise in Jan, we might see a fall in confidence again.

Yup. The pick up in confidence began in the third quarter of this year though not the fourth. We'll see a drop from the Christmas boom most certainly but from February on it'll be interesting to watch. If prices go back up versus Q3 levels then confidence could very well dip down again, it seemed in Q3 that prices had finally fallen to the point where people were starting to buy more again albeit at nowhere close to the same rates as 2007 levels but no one is expecting that to happen for many years if ever.