Consumer confidence dropped this month amid some
discouraging economic news, but picked up in recent days despite the Boston
Marathon bombings, according to a leading private barometer.
The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers index fell 2.8%
in April from the previous month to 76.4. The reading was exactly the same as a
year earlier.
Most of the decline was because consumers were less optimistic about the ability
of the economy to keep expanding.
The reading came as the government reported that economic growth picked up in
the first three months of the year, with gross domestic product growing at an
annualized rate of 2.5%.
The drop in consumer confidence was less than analysts anticipated. Economists
surveyed by Bloomberg News projected a 73.5 reading.
The projections were based in part on the preliminary April figures released two
weeks ago that showed the index dropped to 72.3, its lowest level since July. A
few days later, terrorists attacked the Boston Marathon.
Richard Curtin, the survey's chief economist, said the bombings didn't shake
consumer confidence. After declining significantly in early April, confidence
began to improve before the bombings and "gained strength throughout the rest of
the month," he said.
"Even when consumers were asked to describe in their own words their economic
situation and that of the nation as a whole, there were virtually no references
to the Boston Marathon bombing," Curtin said.
"Of course, this does not mean that people did not grieve at the human tragedy,
only that consumers did not think the events in Boston would influence national
economic prospects."
Only about a quarter of consumers expected the unemployment rate to go down
during 2013. And half of respondents did not expect their household income to
increase this year.
___
(c)2013 Los Angeles Times
Distributed by MCT Information Services
