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Confidence still tracking low

By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, February 2, 2009

NEW YORK — U.S. consumer confidence inched down in January and remained at a historic low, according to The Conference Board's monthly survey.

The Consumer Confidence Index now stands at 37.7 (1985=100), down from 38.6 in December.

According to the survey, which had a cutoff date of Jan. 21 for preliminary results, the Present Situation Index declined slightly to 29.9 from 30.2 last month while the Expectations Index decreased to 43.0 from 44.2.

“The Consumer Confidence Index continues to hover at all-time lows (since it began in 1967) and it appears that consumers have begun the New Year with the same degree of pessimism that they exhibited in the final months of 2008,” said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center.

“The minor change in the Present Situation Index suggests that economic conditions did not deteriorate significantly further in January but, on the other hand, they did not improve either,” she added. “Looking ahead, consumers remain quite pessimistic about the state of the economy and about their earnings. And, until we begin to see considerable improvements in the Expectations Index, we can't say that the worst of times are behind us.”

The Consumer Confidence Survey is based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households.

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Consumer confidence inches down in January

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