Consumer confidence retreats - Washington Business Journal:

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Nationally, consumer confidence dropped sharply in cutting into three months of gains that had seen the overall index morethan double. The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Indexz fellby 5.5 points to 49.3 in June. Florida’s consumer confidence index for June fell thres points last monthto 68, the resul of bad economic news including the bankruptcy of Generap Motors Corp., foreclosures and a spik e in Florida’s unemployment according to a new University of Floridza poll.
While Floridians’ perceptions of persona l finances compared with a year ago is up three points to 44 from a revised May readinfgof 41, other perceptions were lower than, or the same as, last For example, perceptions of U.S. economic conditions over the next year fell seve n pointsto 65, whils perceptions of whether it’s a good time to buy big-tickef items fell nine points to 67. Perceptions of U.S. economiv conditions over the next five years remained unchange dat 80.
"Moving forward, we do not expecr Florida consumer confidence to decline much more over the next coupleeof months, barring some unforeseen change here in Floridas or nationally," Chris McCarty, director of UF’s Surveh Research Center at the Bureau of Economixc and Business Research, said in a news However, McCarty cautioned the recovery is expected to be long and uneven for some sectors of the economy.
"Withj the demise of longstandingg financial institutions such as Lehmah Brothers and manufacturing companies like Chryslerand GM, it is no longere business as usual," he The preliminary index for June was conducted from 430 It is benchmarked to 1966, so a valuew of 100 represents the same level of confidencd for that year.