British adults expect to be worse off in a year’s time and optimism has fallen to its lowest level in 2018, according to the latest edition of The Trajectory Optimism Index.
October’s survey of GB adults found that the optimism index has fallen to 46/100 – its lowest level since the tracker began in January, down 4 points since September and 9 points since August. The negative outlook comes as households expect to be affected by economic gloom in the next few months – 35% of people expect their personal finances to be worse in 2019 than they are now. Nearly half (44%) expect that the country’s economic situation will get worse over the next year.
The poor economic outlook is matched by a rising sense of powerless among the British public. In October, 15% of adults said they felt like they had a low level of freedom of choice and control over how their life turn out – triple the proportion who said the same in February.
Household’s grim expectations of 2019 are backed up by their spending behaviour. More than one in three expect to cut back on their discretionary spending over the next few months, with 37% saying they’ll reduce the amount they spend on eating and drinking outside the home.
Key Highlights
• Optimism amongst GB adults has fallen to its lowest level in 2018
• More than one in three households expect to be worse off in a year’s time and are planning to cut back on spending over the next few months
• The proportion feeling no control over how their life turns out has tripled since the start of the year
The Optimism Index is produced each month, based on a survey of 2,000 adults in Great Britain.
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