Liontrust's Bailey adds trio of stocks for new Macro theme

Stephen Bailey, co-manager of the £584m Liontrust Macro Equity Income fund, explains why he and Jan Luthman have turned positive on the UK consumer.

The outlook for UK consumer spending has improved significantly recently. The sharp fall in oil prices and the associated reduction in household energy costs has been a large contributory factor, as has food price disinflation. We have reassessed our view of the UK consumer in the context of a return to real wage growth and have initiated a new leisure & entertainment theme via three new stocks: Whitbread, Restaurant Group and Cineworld. Figures released last week showed that annual consumer price inflation fell to 0% in February, below the 0.1% expected, and is now flirting with defl...