Consumer Trends, Q4 2014

31 Mar 2015 02:02 PM

Main Points

• In Q4 2014 (Oct–Dec 2014), household spending (adjusted for inflation) grew by 0.6% (£1.6 billion).
• The main contribution to growth can be seen in ‘Miscellaneous goods and services’ which has increased by 3.1% compared with Q3 2014 (Jul-Sep 2014). The largest negative contribution to growth can be seen in ‘Transport’ which has fallen by 1.1% compared with Q3 2014 (Jul-Sep 2014).
• Household spending in volume terms, increased to £259.0 billion in Q4 2007 (Oct-Dec 2007), falling to £244.1 billion in Q2 2009 (Apr-Jun 2009). It has now increased to £263.9 billion, the highest volume spending since the start of the series. Volume spending for the latest three quarters (Apr-Jun 2014, Jul-Sep 2014 and Oct-Dec 2014) has exceeded the previous high in Q4 2007 (Oct-Dec 2007).
• Household spending when compared with the same quarter a year ago has been showing positive growth each quarter since Q4 2011 (Oct-Dec 2011). It was 3.0% higher in Q4 2014 (Oct-Dec 2014), when compared with Q4 2013 (Oct-Dec 2013), the highest increase since Q4 2007 (Oct-Dec 2007).
• The current price value of household spending, which includes inflation, shows how much UK households spent. In Q4 2014 (Oct-Dec 2014), current price spending increased by 1.0% compared with Q3 2014 (Jul-Sep 2014).
• The household expenditure implied deflator grew by 0.4% in Q4 2014 (Oct–Dec 2014) compared with the previous quarter (Jul-Sep 2014).

Get all the tables for this publication in the data section of this publication.