Consumer confidence hits highest since June 2007 - GfK

LONDON (Reuters) - British consumer morale improved further in April and reached its highest level since just before the start of the financial crisis in 2007, a survey from researchers GfK showed on Wednesday. GfK's headline consumer confidence index rose to -3 from -5 last month, compared to the average forecast in a Reuters poll of -4. A year ago the index stood at -27. That took the index to its highest level since June 2007, shortly before worries about the health of major banks spread through markets and culminated in the global financial crisis a year later. "The seemingly inexorable rise of the index continues alongside a number of other economic indicators that continue to provide good news for the government," said Nick Moon, managing director of social research at GfK. Britain's economy racked up its strongest annual growth in more than six years in the early 2014, data on Tuesday showed, although the economy is still smaller than at its peak before the 2008-09 recession. The rise in the GfK index was driven by an improvement in households' willingness to make major purchases and in a better assessment of the economy as a whole, rather than stronger personal finances. Wages have only just started to rise in line with prices after years of falling in real terms. (Reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)