Confidence among US consumers grew in November, breaking a five-month decline, a survey by the private Conference Board research group showed today.
The board's consumer confidence index, based on a survey of 5,000 households, rose to 84.1 points in November from 79.6 in October. It was the first rise after five months of declines.
Consumer confidence is key to the outlook because consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of US economic activity.
Importantly, an index of consumers' expectations for the future rose to 88.4 points from 81.1. An index of consumers' feelings about the present situation edged up to 77.6 points from 77.2.
"The rebound in expectations suggests consumers do not expect economic conditions to get worse," said Conference Board consumer research chief Ms Lynn Franco.
AFP