Complaint
On the basis of a British Retail Consortium/KPMG survey, this article reported that “Consumer spending growth in the UK fell to a record low” in July 2019 and that nearly a third of UK consumers had reduced their spending because of concerns about Brexit. A reader complained that this gave a misleading impression about the impact of Brexit, contradicted by an Office for National Statistics on the same day which showed 3.3% growth in consumer spending in the year to July.
Outcome
The ONS report was not directly commensurable with the BRC/KPMG survey, and could not be said simply to contradict it. However, the article framed the survey results with two case studies where anxieties about Brexit had caused consumers to decrease their spending and a quote from the Head of Banking at KPMG UK which tended to give the impression that they represented a general trend. The result was to give a more negative impression of the impact of Brexit than would have been the case if the survey results had been properly contextualised.
Upheld
Further action
The finding has been discussed with the 鶹’s business online team and they have been reminded of the importance in ensuring that stories which are based on a single survey are also careful to report the wider context. The article has been edited in light of the finding.