Commentary
Economic & Consumer Insights for Marketing Executives
- by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, August 18, 2002
Consumer confidence continues to fall ... For the 5th consecutive month consumer confidence declined in August to lowest level of the year. 28.9% are confident/very confident about chances for a strong economy this year vs. 40.8% in July. Majority of consumers continue to think it will take more than 6 months for economy to get back to normal, 62.7% in August up slightly from July's 61.4%.
Purchase Intentions turn down... Auto manufacturers incentives on new cars may run out of steam as Auto/Truck purchase intentions over next 6 months drops in August to 12.9% from 13.9% in July. Computers off also 11.9% August vs. 13.1% July... Furniture falls to 13.7% from July's 14.8... Appliances decline to 9.8% vs. July 11.1%... Vacation travel mirroring seasonality is off at 22.1% in August from July's 23.4%. One bright spot is Housing which didn't decline or grow but maintained same number as July 4.8%.
Employment environment concerns over next 6 months continue to be on minds of consumers as 88.8% say they think there will be more or the same number of layoffs over the next 6 months than at present... up from 85.4% in July.
Wall Street's performance over last 60 days has affected consumer spending.... 8.1% have delayed home improvements, 13.4% have cut back on vacation expenditures, 11.0% have put more investment dollars into Savings Accounts or CD's.
Regarding the affect recent signing of Business Fraud Bill will have on restoring confidence in stock market, 16.2% say now to six months, 35.1% say 6 months to more than a year, 9.4% say never and 39.3% say they don't know.
Top investments for all consumers:
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Jack Loechner is the Editor of The Center for Media Research's daily Research Brief. You can reach him at jack@mediapost.com.