Aug 25 (Reuters) – U.S. consumer confidence fell in August to its lowest in seven months as households’ outlooks for the labor market and inflation worsened, a survey showed on Tuesday.
The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index dropped to 89.4 this month – the lowest since January – from an downwardly revised 90.2 in July. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the index at 90.2 versus an originally reported 90.8 in July.
The decline was led by a 7.8% slide in the expectations index, offsetting the first improvement in households’ views of the current situation in four months.
“Consumers were more pessimistic about business conditions and the labor market over the next six months,” said Dana Peterson, chief economist at the Conference Board.
The report’s so-called jobs differential index, measuring the gap between respondents who say jobs are plentiful versus those who say the are hard to find, rose for the first time in three months from a July reading that was the lowest in more than five years.
Consumers saw inflation accelerating over the next 12 months to 5.8% from 5.6% in July.
(Reporting By Dan Burns; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
