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American consumer confidence, as measured by the Thomson Reuters/Ipsos Primary Consumer Sentiment Index, sees a moderate 1.4 point drop in December, 2018. Three of four sub indices see noticeable drops while the Jobs Index reports solid growth. The Investment and Current Indices saw the largest drops of 3.2 points and 3.0 points, respectively. Despite these strong drops, the Jobs Index reports 1.3 points of growth.
“Last month showed consumers in a state of cautious optimism. They believed the future was going to improve, but didn’t quite want to plan for it,” reports Chris Jackson, Vice President at survey research firm Ipsos.”This month’s findings show that consumers have become more pessimistic. They remain confident in the job market, but it seems all the uncertainty in the political and financial spheres over the last few months has turned sour.”
Jharonne Martis, Director of Consumer Research at Refinitiv, said, “Looking forward to the first quarter of 2019, the Refinitiv Same Store Sales estimates are below the current 3.1% healthy mark. This underlines consumers feeling of uncertainty about what to expect from the economy in 2019.”
Download the full report here.