Consumer Confidence Further Deteriorates

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 5/5/2008 12:00:00 AM

New York —

Noting, "The glass remains half empty," Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Research Center, said the April Consumer Confidence Index does not bode well.

The Index is at 62.3 (1985=100), down from 65.9 in March. The Present Situation Index component fell to 80.7 from 90.6. "The percentage of respondents intending to take a vacation over the next six months has fallen to a 30-year low," Franco pointed out, "another sign of consumers turning more cost conscious."

"This continued weakening suggests that not only has the feeble level of growth in the first quarter spilled over into the second quarter, but that economic conditions may have slowed even further," said Franco. "Consumers' inflation expectation...now matches the all-time high reached in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina."