Britons are cutting back on DIY and households goods purchases but are splashing out on one-off treats such as holidays and days out, a report from TSB has found. As people try to manage their household costs, many are shelving renovations or home improvement projects, with overall spending on DIY, electrical and furniture falling by 15.5% in the last six months compared with a year earlier. They also spent less on new clothes, down 4%. The report, a six-monthly analysis of TSB debit card transactions, shows customers spent £9.5bn in the first half of the year. While this is up 1.7% compared with the same period in 2023, it is lower than the rate of inflation of 2%. They are spending more on entertainment such as concerts, theme parks, going to the cinema and theatre (up 5.1%), with spending on amusement parks jumping by 20.2%. Spending in pubs is also up, by 7.2% — driven by spending over Easter and the May bank holidays rather than during the Euro 2024 tournament, as spending in pubs fell by 2.5% in June compared with May. In China, consumer prices grew for a fifth month in June, but less than expected, while producer price deflation persisted, with domestic demand in slow recovery mode despite Beijing’s support measures. The Chinese government has sought to revive consumer demand after a lacklustre post-Covid recovery but people remain worried about the housing downturn and job insecurity. The consumer price index rose 0.2% in June from a year earlier, compared with a 0.3% rise in May, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Economists had expected an annual rate of 0.4%. Food prices fell by 2.1% year on year despite supply disruptions caused by poor summer weather. Asian shares remained close to two-year highs hit at the start of the week. Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.6%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped by 0.1% and the Shanghai market fell by 0.57%. Stocks have rallied on the back of growing expectations that the US Federal Reserve could start cutting interest rates soon, with the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, saying yesterday that the US was “no longer an overheated economy”. The agenda • 2.30pm BST: speech by the Bank of England chief economist, Huw Pill • 3pm BST: the US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, speaks • 4.30pm BST: Bank of England policymaker Catherine Mann on a panel at Manchester Business School We’ll be tracking all the main events throughout the day ...
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