Household consumption in the United Kingdom grew by about 4% during 2001. This was largely accounted for by unusually strong spending on durable goods - growth in spending on other goods and services slowed to around a six-year low. This article discusses why spending on durable goods needs to...

During the early to mid-1990s, the pace of economic growth in the South was broadly comparable with that in the rest of the United Kingdom. During 1996-98, however, the pace of activity in the South strengthened considerably relative to the rest of the country. This article investigates one...

Over much of the past 25 years, the cycles of house price and consumption growth have been closely synchronised. Three main hypotheses for this co-movement have been proposed in the literature. First, that an increase in house prices raises households' wealth, particularly for those in a...

This article seeks to augment our understanding of consumers' attitudes and motivations when purchasing financial products. Using insights gleaned from focus discussion groups and a quantitative survey of consumers it focuses upon understanding the extent to which consumers' attitudes and...