This month’s Consumer Confidence Index was 110.3 points (1985=100), edging up from December’s 110.0, The Conference Board reported today.
“This month’s slight increase in confidence was solely the result of an improvement in the Present Situation Index [from 130.5 to 133.9 points], fueled primarily by a more favorable job market,” said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center.
The national Expectations Index, reflecting consumers’ assessment of the outlook for the next six months, declined in January to 94.5 points from December’s 96.3. For instance, slightly more respondents expected business conditions to worsen (8 percent, versus December’s 7.8 percent), while slightly fewer expected them to improve (16.2 percent, down from 16.7 percent).
Trends in New England, however, were the opposite of those nationwide.
The region’s CCI fell to 93.9 points this month, from December’s 98.0, and the PSI plunged to 107.7 points, from 123.0 a month earlier. Meanwhile, the Expectations Index edged up to 84.7 points from December’s 84.1.
The New England CCI and Expectations Index remained above their January 2005 levels of 92.2 and 75.8, respectively, though the region’s PSI fell short of its year-ago 116.8 points.
The national indexes this month all exceeded their January 2005 levels; a year ago, the nationwide composite CCI was 106.8, the Expectations Index was 92.1, the Present Situations Index was 128.8 points.
The Consumer Confidence report is based on a monthly survey of 5,000 representative U.S. households. Additional information, including today’s full four-page report, is available at www.conference-board.org.
