Telegraph: Confidence takes an austerity knock

Confidence in the economy is waning among businesses and households, suggesting the economy will slow in the second half of the year as the Coalition's austerity measures begin to bite. Some 86pc of respondents to the Markit/YouGov Household Finance Index expect the cost of living to rise in the next 12 months, a record high. At the same time, there has been the sharpest drop in confidence in job security in the private sector for 13 months, "suggesting the impact of Government spending cuts has reverberated beyond the public sector", the report said. Respondents also estimated that the value of their properties fell in August, as the research scored its lowest reading for 13 months.