After reporting a significant improvement in U.S. consumer confidence in the previous month, the Conference Board released a report on Tuesday showing that consumer confidence continued to improve in the month of December.
The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index jumped to 113.7 in December from an upwardly revised 109.4 in November.
Economists had expected the consumer confidence index to rise to 108.5 from the 107.1 originally reported for the previous month.
"Consumer Confidence improved further in December, due solely to increasing Expectations which hit a 13-year high," said Lynn Franco, Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board.
The report said the expectations index surged up to 105.5 in December from 94.4 in November, reaching its highest level since December of 2003.
Consumers expecting business conditions to improve over the next six months jumped to 23.6 percent from 16.4 percent, while those expecting business conditions to worsen dipped to 8.7 percent from 9.9 percent.
The outlook for the labor market also improved markedly, as consumers expecting more jobs in the months ahead increased to 21.0 percent from 16.1.
"Looking ahead to 2017, consumers' continued optimism will depend on whether or not their expectations are realized," Franco said.
Meanwhile, the Conference Board said consumers' assessment of current conditions declined during the month, with the present situation index dropping to 126.1 in December from 132.0 in November.
The percentage of consumer saying business conditions are "good" edged down to 29.2 percent from 29.7 percent, while those saying conditions are "bad" increased to 17.3 percent from 15.2 percent.
Additionally, consumers saying jobs are "plentiful" declined to 26.9 percent from 27.8 percent, and those claiming jobs are "hard to get" rose to 22.5 percent from 21.2 percent.
by RTT Staff Writer
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com
Economic News
What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
