Rich ‘find it hard to stop spending on luxuries’

THE UK’S affluent households are buying more luxury items at the same time as their economic confidence falls, a survey has found.

The proportion of households earning £100,000 or more who have bought luxury items in the last year has increased from 56 per cent in 2017 to 69 per cent, the YouGov Affluent Perspective study shows.

However, pessimism about the economy has increased at the same time, with just 13 per cent of affluent households in the UK saying they are confident in the global economy, a decline of three percentage points on last year.

YouGov suggested that one reason why affluent households have increased their luxury spending was that many “find it difficult to stop”. Some 39 per cent of affluent households believe that “once you experience luxury, it’s hard to scale back”, with almost half thinking that luxury is worth the cost.