[B]UK Consumer Confidence[/B] rose for the sixth consecutive month to the highest level since April 2008 in September according to the Nationwide Building Society, a leading consumer lender. The forward-looking Expectations component gauging the survey respondents’ six-month outlook revealed that optimists outnumbered pessimists for the first time in close to six years. Nationwide’s head of economic and market analysis Mark Saddleton said widespread talk of recovery in the news media “may have helped to improve sentiment in September, which may have also been boosted by continued positive news about the housing market and the strong rally seen in the equity markets in recent months.” However, recent housing-market reports from Rightmove Plc and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) have suggested that much of the rebound in home values is accounted for by low supply rather than robust demand for real estate, while equities look vulnerable to (at least) a corrective reversal having rallied to a six-year high relative to earnings. It is unclear whether cheerleading from the media can successfully underpin confidence should the fragile foundations of the other two catalysts give way, but steadily rising unemployment (already at a 22-year high of 5% and set to approach 9% next year) looks likely to undermine sentiment in the months ahead.
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