The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, which had been declining since the summer, posted a slight increase in December.
The Index now stands at 88.6 (1985=100), up from 87.8 in November. The Present Situation Index, however, decreased to 108.3 from 115.7 in November. The Expectations Index rose to 75.5 from 69.1.
The Consumer Confidence Survey is based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households. The monthly survey is conducted for The Conference Board by TNS.
TNS is the world's largest custom research company. The cutoff date for December's preliminary results was December 18th.
Says Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center: “This month's slight gain in Confidence was due solely to an increase in the Expectations Index.
Consumers' short-term outlook regarding business conditions, employment, inflation and stock prices improved marginally. However, while consumers are less negative about the near-term future, they remain far from optimistic.
Furthermore, persistent declines in the Present Situation Index indicate the economy is still losing momentum. In fact, in assessing the current job market, pessimists now outnumber optimists. Regarding business conditions, the gap between the two is almost nonexistent.”
Consumers' appraisal of present-day conditions continues to paint a dismal picture. Those claiming conditions are “good” decreased to 20.3 percent from 22.5 percent.
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