LONDON (Reuters) -British consumers’ optimism about the economy and their own finances recorded its sharpest fall this month since April, when many household bills increased and U.S. President Donald Trump announced wide-ranging tariffs on imports from Britain.
The British Retail Consortium, which represents big retailers, said sentiment had been hit by government hints that the main rate of income tax would rise for the first time since the 1970s – an idea which now appears to have been ditched.
“With Christmas fast approaching, public expectations of spending – both on non-food retail goods and across wider spending – fell,” BRC Chief Executive Helen Dickinson said.
(Reporting by David Milliken; editing by Suban Abdulla)
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