Consumer confidence falls to 5-year low on energy, food price concerns


U.S. consumer confidence declined in April 2008, as consumers continued to express concern over rising food and energy costs, which are boosting retail inflation and lowering disposable income.

U.S. consumer confidence fell in April 2008 to 62.3 from a revised 65.9 in March 2008, the Conference Board announced Tuesday. It was the index's lowest reading since 2003.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had expected the index to drop to 62.0 in April 2008. In February 2008, the index stood at 76.4.

The board said consumers' evaluation of present-day conditions weakened further in April 2008. Those claiming business conditions are "bad" increased to 26.7% from 25.5%, while those claiming business conditions are "good" dipped slightly, to 15.3 from 15.6%.

Consumers' assessment of the job market was considerably more pessimistic than last month. Those saying jobs are "hard to get" rose to 27.9% from 24.65, while those claiming jobs are "plentiful" decreased to 16.6% from 19.2%.


Ongoing concerns

Economist Glen Langan told BloggingStocks Tuesday the latest consumer confidence reading indicates consumers are in-tune with the sluggish-to-difficult economic conditions the nation is experiencing. "All of the factors that we've discussed over the past six months, stagnant wages for many, high energy prices, food prices marching up, and the worst housing market in a generation, are weighing on the consumer and this is reflected in the low confidence statistic," Langan said. "There is a legitimate concern among adults that the nation's economy will worsen in the months ahead, and it's not an unreasonable concern."

Langan said it will take "a series of positive data points" on job growth, housing and consumer prices over months to turn consumer attitudes around, and the nation "is a long way from that recovery stage, at this juncture."

Further, the board said consumers' short-term expectations continued to deteriorate in April 2008. Consumers expecting business conditions to worsen over the next six months increased to 27.0% from 26.0%.

In addition, the outlook for the labor market was also significantly more pessimistic, the board said. Those expecting fewer jobs in the months ahead surged to 32.8% from 29.3%.

The Consumer Confidence Index is based on a representative sample of 5,000 households.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Symbol Lookup
IndexesChangePrice
DJIA+85.3312,886.56
NASDAQ+26.342,930.22
S&P 500+9.361,352.00

Last updated: February 13, 2012: 02:51 PM

Hot Stocks

General Electric

19.055+0.18(+0.95)

Alcoa

10.33+0.04(+0.39)

Apple Inc

501.14+7.72(+1.56)

Google Inc 'A'

613.17+7.26(+1.20)

Bank of America

8.295+0.225(+2.79)

Wal-Mart Stores

61.89-0.01(-0.02)

Exxon Mobil Corp

84.53+0.73(+0.87)

Ford

12.60+0.16(+1.29)

Citigroup

33.33+0.405(+1.23)

IBM

192.98+0.56(+0.29)

Yahoo

16.140.00(0.00)

Starbucks

49.20+0.38(+0.78)

Microsoft

30.705+0.21(+0.69)

Home Depot

46.095+0.765(+1.69)

DailyFinance Headlines

Benzinga Headlines

TheFlyOnTheWall.com Headlines

BioHealth Investor Headlines

WalletPop Headlines

DailyFinance BlackBerry App

My Portfolios

Track your stocks here!

Find out why more people track their portfolios on AOL Money & Finance then anywhere else.

BloggingStocks Partners

More from AOL Money & Finance

BioHealth Investor Headlines

Page Loaded in 1329162667277 ms.