By James Davey
LONDON (Reuters) - The outlook for the UK consumer is the best it has been than since before the pandemic in 2020, the boss of clothing retailer Next said on Thursday.
"We're not negative about the consumer outlook, it's a first for us for some time," Next chief executive Simon Wolfson told Reuters after the group reported annual results.
"That doesn't mean we think the consumer environment's going to be hugely ebullient, we just don't think that the consumer's facing the same headwinds they were facing at this time last year."
The company, often considered a gauge of how British consumers are faring, forecast a 4.6% rise in profit in its 2024-25 year on full price sales up 2.5%.
Wolfson, a peer of Britain's ruling Conservative Party and the longest-serving FTSE 100 CEO, said the risk factor for 2024 he was most concerned about was the prospect of a weakening employment market.
"If employment numbers start coming down significantly that will impact peoples' disposable income," he said in an interview.
Wolfson said he was also keeping a close eye on measures of bad debt.
He welcomed the recent increase in UK consumers' real wages but cautioned that "from a policy perspective the country just needs to be very careful."
"If wages rise too much ahead of inflation, then either it becomes inflationary itself or it leads to unemployment and it's a fine balance," he said.
"At the moment it looks like that balance is broadly right but it's just something to watch."
Wage rises are closely observed by the Bank Of England as it assesses whether the inflationary pressure in the British economy has eased enough for it to cut the interest rate from its highest level in 16 years.
($1 = 0.7820 pounds)