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Investing.com -- Following a recent analysis by Barclays (LON:BARC) using their proprietary UK Spend Trends 2.0 signals, UK consumer spending has shown a year-on-year (YoY) increase of 4.4% in the four weeks leading up to April 4.
This growth, primarily driven by discretionary spending, is observed across all age groups and is more pronounced in online purchases compared to offline.
The increase also marks a shift towards higher spending on discretionary goods and services over non-discretionary ones.
The data, extracted from a variety of consumer categories, indicates that the upward trend in spending is not isolated to a single sector.
Digital Content, Other Retail, and Travel sectors have experienced the most significant growth in the last month. This contrasts with sectors like Fuel and Motoring (excluding fuel), and Hardware & DIY, which have seen declines.
Notably, the Clothing Retail sector has shown positive movement for the first time in approximately six months.
Barclays’ monthly overview provides insights into both discretionary and non-discretionary spending, covering 11 distinct categories ranging from Grocery to Clothing Retail and Travel.
The intention of this analysis is to offer a high-level view of the previous month’s consumer spending trends in the UK.
In addition to reporting past spending patterns, Barclays also utilizes a machine learning model to project future spending.
The model forecasts a continued increase in consumer spending over the next four weeks, predicting a rise of 3.3% YoY.
This forecast is based on a time series forecasting model that leverages machine learning to anticipate upcoming spending trends.
This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.