In this episode of Thinking Ahead, GfK’s Neil Bellamy and our moderator Lucy Green, discuss the January 2024 results of UK Consumer Confidence Barometer. With the main Index at -19%, UK consumers have started the year feeling positive. Neil explains what’s special about January and whether optimism is usual in the first month of the year. We focus on the Personal Financial Situation metric which reached zero after 24 consecutive months of negative scores. Delving into the results by income level tells a more nuanced story. In our regular feature, Data Guru Corner, Neil explains how the Index is composed, and why it is used to report confidence levels in the UK.