Brexit pushes UK's consumer confidence to lowest level since 1994

The United Kingdom’s consumer confidence witnessed the worst performance in over two decades, signaling that the nation’s decision to leave membership of the European Union is already weighing on the economic outlook of the country.

GfK’s core index slid to minus 9 in a special post-referendum survey conducted from June 30 to July 5, from minus 1 earlier in June. That’s the biggest slide since December 1994 when increases in tax, interest rates and job insecurity weighed on spending.

While confidence among respondents who said they voted to remain in the EU dropped to minus 13, the decline was tempered by a lesser slide of minus 5 among those who said they opted to leave.

"During this period of uncertainty, we’ve seen a very significant drop in confidence. Every one of our key measures has fallen, with the biggest decrease occurring in the outlook for the general economic situation in the next 12 months," said Joe Staton, Head, Market Dynamics, GfK.

While, the number of respondents who believe that the economic situation of the country will worsen in the near term went up by 46 percent, the proportion of people who believe prices will increase rapidly during the same period jumped to 33 percent from 13 percent. Also, confidence dropped deeper in parts of North England and Scotland, than those living in the south, including London.

Meanwhile, a report published by Markit showed that the June 23 vote has also hurt employment and hiring. The number of people placed in permanent jobs fell for the first time since September 2012, according to a survey of 400 UK consultancies conducted between June 13 and June 24, a report published by Markit for the Recruitment & Employment Confederation showed.