After reporting a moderate decrease in consumer confidence in the previous month, the Conference Board released a report on Tuesday showing that its U.S. consumer confidence index rose by more than expected in the month of December.
The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index climbed to 96.5 in December from an upwardly revised 92.6 in November.
Economists had expected the consumer confidence index to rise to 93.5 from the 90.4 originally reported for the previous month.
Lynn Franco, Director of Economic Indicators at the Conference Board, said, “As 2015 draws to a close, consumers’ assessment of the current state of the economy remains positive, particularly their assessment of the job market.”
“Looking ahead to 2016, consumers are expecting little change in both business conditions and the labor market,” she added. “Expectations regarding their financial outlook are mixed, but the optimists continue to outweigh the pessimists.”
The report said the present situation index increased to 115.3 in December from 110.9 in the previous month.
Consumers saying business conditions are “good” increased to 27.3 percent in December from 25.0 percent in November, although those saying business conditions are “bad” also rose to 19.8 percent from 16.9 percent to.
However, consumers were more positive about the labor market, as those saying jobs are “plentiful” increased to 24.1 percent from 21.0 percent and those claiming jobs are “hard to get” fell to 24.7 percent from 25.8 percent.
The Conference Board also said its expectations index climbed to 83.9 in December from 80.4 in November.
The increase by the index reflected a more optimistic outlook for the labor market, as consumers expecting more jobs in the months ahead ticked up to 12.9 percent from 12.0 percent, while those anticipating fewer jobs decreased to 16.6 percent from 18.5 percent.
Meanwhile, consumers expecting business conditions to improve over the next six months dipped to 15.2 percent from 15.7 percent and those expecting business conditions to worsen edged up to 11.0 percent from 10.6 percent.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com