LONDON, Oct 20Reuters British consumer confidence has tumbled this month after rising to its highest since the start of 2022 in September, reflecting households39; renewed concerns about the outlook for their personal finances and the broader economy.

The GfK consumer confidence index, Britain39;s longestrunning survey of its type, dropped to a threemonth low of 30 in October from September39;s reading of 21.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a modest improvement to 20, and the ninepoint drop was the largest since a oneoff survey GfK did at the start of the COVID19 pandemic in 2020.

The last time the survey showed a bigger drop in a regular monthly release was in December 1994.

This sharp fall underlines that the costofliving crisis, and simply not having enough money to makeendsmeet, are still exerting acute pressure for many consumers, Joe Staton, client strategy director at GfK, said.

British consumer price inflation held at 6.7 in September the highest rate across major advanced economies although it is down from the 41year high of 11.1 recorded in October 2022.

Most economists expect inflation to fall sharply this month due to less unfavourable yearonyear comparisons for energy prices, but the average costofliving is still around 17 higher than it was two years ago.

The fierce headwinds of meeting the accelerating costs of heating our homes, filling our petrol tanks, coping with surging mortgage and rental rates, a slowing jobs market and now the…