Restaurants, clothing bear brunt of consumer angst

The poll asked people how they felt about the five major barometers of consumer confidence and compared the results with last year's poll.

The results showed that 77% of the people said that they are eating out in restaurants less often, only 9% said they are eating out more frequently and 14% said they had not changed their patterns.

The survey also revealed that 75% of people are buying new clothes less than last year, 8% said they were buying more often while 17% reported no change in their buying patterns.

Asked about their job security, 31% said they are more worried about losing their jobs than this time last year. The same percentage said they are feeling less worried while 38% said they felt as secure as they did last year.

When asked about checking prices at supermarkets, 88% reported that they are checking prices more carefully than they did this time last year, 3% said they checked less often while 9% said they there was no difference in their price checking behaviour.

About 60% of people polled are less likely to consider buying a new car, 25% said their intensions remained unchanged while 15% said they are more likely to buy a new car. People have also become choosier compared to this time last year.

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