Coronavirus, Bad Weather Impact British Consumers, Businesses

A recent survey by Barclaycard indicates that over 25% of British consumers avoided shopping sprees and visits to commercial locations due to bad weather and the fear of coronavirus. Barclaycard’s consumer spending index gained by 2.2% during February, lower than the 3.9% gain seen in the previous month.

According to the survey, 53% of consumers put off their shopping plans due to stormy weather while 28% stayed indoors owing to the threat of coronavirus. On the positive side, consumers ended up spending more on digital entertain and food takeaway services.

The dip in consumer spending was seen in a recent survey by the BRC as well, with only a 0.1% rise in spending in February vs. the 0.4% rise seen in January. Meanhile, fears of the coronavirus have not only impacted consumers but also businesses, with business confidence declining to the lowest level in six months, according to a survey by IoD.

Over 50% of the participants indicated that they were quite pessimistic or very pessimistic about the economy over the next year. 20% of companies surveyed stated that the coronavirus outbreak would pose a high to severe level of threat to their businesses.