An index tracking investment sentiment has fallen sharply as a result of a collapse in investor confidence around the market outlook following the ascension of Boris Johnson in the UK, according to Bank of Ireland.
Bank of Ireland's investment index slip from 94 to 88 in August, indicating serious concerns about the UK crashing out of the European Union following the selection of Mr Johnson as Theresa May's successor as UK prime minister. Almost 40 per cent saw August as a bad time to invest.
The overall savings and investment index recorded a smaller drop, from 96 to 94, because sentiment around saving actually improved slightly. Favourable economic conditions is attributed with helping Irish consumers continuing to save. Meanwhile, 40 per cent of those surveyed felt they were likely to save more as a result of Brexit concerns.
Brexit concerns
“So far we haven’t seen evidence of savers responding to growing Brexit uncertainty in the way Irish investors did over the summer,” said Tom McCabe of Bank of Ireland investment markets.
“However our finding that 40 per cent of Irish people are likely to save more because of Brexit concerns indicates that precautionary saving could certainly spike suddenly were the UK to crash out of the EU with no deal.”
Bank of Ireland's quarterly index is produced by Ipsos MRBI from a nationally representative sample of 1,000 consumers.
