|
You may feel like you are sitting pretty thanks to soaring house prices, but falling stock market values have hit personal investments, pensions and endowments to the extent that the total wealth of the British nation has fallen by 3.5 percent over the last year.
That's the conclusion of a new piece of research carried out for the FT by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, which estimates that total household wealth is currently worth around £3,793 billion - a sharp drop of £139 billion from this time last year and a whopping £415 billion lower than at the high point towards the end of the year 2000.
Although the lions share of stock market losses have been more or less offset by house price growth, much of increase in property values is itself offset by mortgage debt, which has grown by more than £100 billion since 2000.
Despite the relative fall in wealth, consumers have been slow to curb their spending, according to the report, with average consumption up by around 4 percent on last year. However, Nigel Pain, of the NIESR believes that it won't be long before the purse strings are tightened: "When people start to get information about shortfalls in pension funds and required increases in contributions, then that will start to affect their consumption."
|
Get
this news on your website !
Sponsored listings: