US consumer confidence almost unchanged in April

The Conference Board consumer confidence index decreased marginally in April 2022, dropping to 107.3 from 107.6 in the previous month. Despite constantly rising inflation, high commodity prices and geopolitical risks related to the war in Ukraine, consumer confidence remains robust on the back of a recovering economy and a tight labour market. The April survey revealed that the percentage of consumers who regard the current business conditions as “good” rose to 20.8 in April from 19.6 in March, although 21.9% of consumers asses them as “bad” compared to 21.4% in the previous month. 55.2% of the surveyed respondents regard the present employment situation as “plentiful”, a drop from the 56.7% in March.

The 6-month consumer expectations also remained almost unchanged in April, accelerating to 77.2 from 76.7 in March. 60.1% of the consumers expect business conditions to remain the same the short term, compared to 56.9% in March. Employment opportunities are also expected to remain the same by the majority of the respondents (63.7%). Expectations about future income did not change substantially on a monthly basis and 69.7% of the consumers expect it to remain the same.

The US consumer confidence indicator is updated monthly, available from February 1967 to April 2022. The data reached an all-time high of 144.7 in May 2000 and a record low of 25.3 in February 2009.

More about the Conference Board consumer confidence index here.

Further data and analysis on the US economy are available on the CEIC US Economy in a Snapshot – Q2 2022 report.