Consumer Confidence

This week saw consumer confidence drop to its lowest level for 15 months, it also saw the pound falling against the US Dollar as investors became nervous about the state of the world economy.Consumers are perhaps worried about the level of disposable income they will have over the months ahead and the emergency budget and inflationary pressures such as rising food and petrol costs are adding to this worry.U.K. house prices dropped again in July and will, probably, struggle to gain for the rest of the year. Prices in England and Wales rose 0.1% from June, when they fell by the same amount. Values are up 8.1% from a year earlier to an average £220,685. The decrease in house prices in July was the first since February and came as the number of transactions rose 11% from June to about 72,100 as more people put their properties on the market.Regional data for June showed the drop in average prices across England and Wales was led by a 0.5% decrease in the Yorkshire and Humberside region, values in London fell 0.4%.