Consumer Confidence Continues Drop

October 30, 2007  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in on October 2007 The Consumer Confidence Index fell to 95.6 points in October, off 3.9 points from September’s 99.5 points (1985=100). This is the third monthly decline in a row for the Index. Also decreasing was the Present Situation Index, off 2.4 points to finish at 118.8 points and the Expectations Index, which fell to 80.1 points from 85 points in September.

Six-month buying plans results were mixed, with October figures showing 2.7 percent of consumers planning to buy a home, measured against 3 percent in September and auto-buying intentions increasing to 6.6 percent of consumers from 5.3 percent last month.

Consumer confidence was identified as the number one measure of how the economy was performing by respondents in Home Furnishings Business’ exclusive economic survey, published in the October issue of HFB.

“Consumer Confidence posted its third monthly decline and continues to hover at two-year lows”, said Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center. “Further weakening in business conditions has, yet again, tempered consumers’ assessment of current-day conditions and may well be a prelude to lackluster job growth in the months ahead,” she added.

“Consumers are growing more pessimistic about the short-term future and their rather bleak outlook suggests a less than stellar ending to this year,” Franco stated.

The Consumer Confidence Survey is based on a representative sample of 5000 U.S. households. The cutoff date for October’s preliminary results was October 23.