Consumer Confidence Rises To End Year But Down Overall In 2015
Consumer confidence continued to rise over the past two weeks, increasing from 47.9 to 48.3, according to the HPS-CivicScience Economic Sentiment Index (ESI). In total, consumer confidence rose 1.2 points during the month of December. While this mirrors an increase during last year’s holiday season, consumer confidence did not experience the same year-end rally as in 2014 and trended downward throughout 2015. The ESI began the year at 53.3 and is closing the year out at 48.3.
Consumer confidence in personal finance and in the national economy increased over the past two weeks, driving much of this reading’s gain. Both components increased by approximately two points each. Looking back on the year, falling consumer confidence in the labor market and in the nationally economy contributed to the overall decline of the ESI in 2015. Confidence in making a major purchase, personal finances, and the housing market saw some volatility but did not see a drastic change from the beginning of the year to now.
The three day moving average began the reading at 47 and ended it at 49.2. It remained fairly stable during the begin of the reading but saw increased volatility towards the end.
The next release of the ESI will be January 12. Happy New Year!
About the Index
The HPS-CivicScience Economic Sentiment Index (“ESI”) is a “living” index that measures U.S. adults’ expectations for the economy going forward, as well as their feelings about current conditions for major purchases. The primary goal of the Index is to accurately measure movements in overall national economic sentiment, and to provide a more sophisticated alternative to existing economic sentiment indices. Unlike other prominent indices that release consumer sentiment estimates infrequently, the HPS-CivicScience Index is updated in real time as responses are collected continuously every hour, every day. Large-scale cross-tabulation of survey responses and consumer attributes enable more granular analyses than are currently possible through prevailing measures.
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About Hamilton Place Strategies (HPS)
Hamilton Place Strategies is a policy, advocacy, and communications consulting firm with a focus and expertise at the intersection of government, business, and media.
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About CivicScience
CivicScience, Inc. provides the leading intelligent polling and real-time consumer insights platform, the InsightStore™. Its proprietary platform powers the world’s opinions and quickly gets that data to the decision makers who care. Every day, CivicScience polls ask millions of people questions related to thousands of topics, while its powerful data science and big data technology analyzes current consumer opinions, discovers trends as they start, and accurately predicts future behaviors and market outcomes. CivicScience polls run on hundreds of premier websites, in addition to its own public polling site at www.civicscience.com. CivicScience’s InsightStore™ is used by leading enterprises in marketing research, advertising, media, financial services, and political polling. For more information, visit CivicScience by clicking here and follow them on Twitter – @CivicScience.