WASHINGTON, May 28 — US consumers were in an increasingly rosy mood in May, driving an index of consumer confidence to a six-month high as the jobs market remained robust, survey results showed.
The increase should support consumer spending in the second quarter of the year, when economic activity is nevertheless expected to be slower.
“Consumer Confidence posted another gain in May and is now back to levels seen last fall when the index was hovering near 18-year highs,” Lynn Franco, head of economic indicators at the Conference Board, which produces the survey, said in a statement.
The index rose to 134.1 in May, hitting its highest level since November and marking the second straight monthly increase and a dip in March.
The 4.9-point increase overshot economists’ expectations, which called for a reading of 130.
The survey found growing shares of respondents who said business conditions were “good” and that jobs were “plentiful” — although the share of people saying jobs were “not so plentiful” also crept higher.
Meanwhile 19.2 per cent of respondents said that in the next six months they expected to find more jobs available, up from 16.7 per cent in April.
Smaller improvements were also recorded for groups expecting higher income and better business conditions.
Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics said the increase showed a continuing recovery after the stock market rout of December 2018 but he warned consumer surveys were rising faster than spending could.
“Spending can’t match the (five per cent) growth signaled by the surveys,” he said in a note to clients, adding that inflation-adjusted after-tax income growth was rising about half as fast. — AFP
