The Conference
Board informed on Tuesday its U.S. consumer confidence index increased 4.5
points to 10.2 in May from an upwardly revised 97.5 (from 97.0) in April. This marked
the first gain in the indicator after three straight months of decline.
Economists had predicted
the consumer confidence index to drop to 95.9.
The details of
the survey revealed that the May advance in the headline index was driven by increases in both
the present situation index (+2.5 points to 143.1 this month) and the expectations index (+5.8 points
to 74.6).
Commenting on
the results of the last survey, Dana M. Peterson, Chief Economist at The
Conference Board, said that the strong labour market continued to bolster
consumers' overall assessment of the present situation, while lower expectations
of deterioration in future business conditions, job availability and income resulted
in an increase in the expectation index. She also noted that in May's write-in
responses, consumers cited prices, especially for food and groceries, as having
the greatest impact on their view of the U.S. economy. “Notably, average
12-month inflation expectations ticked up from 5.3 per cent to 5.4 per cent,” she
added.