Falling Confidence
The consumer confidence index fell to 93.3 in September from 94.5 in August, according to the Conference Board, a New York-based research firm. This marks the third straight month of decline for consumer confidence. The firm also found that the number of consumers who are optimistic about the economic future declined slightly. A survey found that 21.5 percent of respondents expect the economy to improve in the next six months; in August, 22.2 percent said they expected business conditions to improve in the next six months. But the number of consumers who are pessimistic about the short-term future also declined in September. The firm found that 9.6 percent of survey respondents said they expected the economy to get worse in the next six months, as opposed to 10 percent in August who had the same outlook.
