NEW YORK, Dec. 28 (UPI) -- The Conference Board on Friday said consumer confidence in the nation's economy, which had declined dramatically over the previously three months, rebounded in December indicating the deterioration in current economic conditions appears to be reaching a plateau.
The private research group said its index measuring consumer confidence, which uses 1985 as a base of 100, jumped 8.8 percentage points to 93.7 during the month from a revised 84.9 in November, which the board originally reported as 82.2.
Economists on Wall Street were expecting confidence to rise to 83.0 during the month.
Consumer confidence hit an all-time high of 144.7 in May of last year. The December improvement was the first for the confidence in six months.
Economists watch the index because high confidence readings suggest consumers are in a mood to spend, and such spending accounts for about two-thirds of economic output.
The board said the survey, which is based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households, showed the present situation index improved slightly to 96.9 from 96.9 a month ago while the expectations index jumped to 91.5 from 77.3 in November.
Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board's Consumer Research Center said, "The deterioration in current economic conditions appears to be reaching a plateau, led by a stabilizing employment scenario.
"Consumers' short-term optimism is no longer at recession levels, and the upward trend signals that the economy may be close to bottoming out and that a rebound by mid-2002 is likely," Franco added.
The report showed that consumers' appraisal of current economic conditions was slightly more positive than last month.
Consumers rating conditions as good increased from 16.8 percent to 17.0 percent. However, those rating current business conditions as bad rose from 20.7 percent to 21.7 percent.
Consumers reporting jobs were plentiful edged up from 17.5 percent to 17.6 percent. Those claiming jobs were hard to get declined from 22.7 percent to 21.8 percent.
The board said consumers are more optimistic about economic prospects six months from now. Those expecting an improvement in business conditions increased from 17.7 percent to 22.2 percent. Those anticipating conditions to worsen declined from 16.9 percent to 11.6 percent.
The employment outlook was also more positive. Currently, 16.1 percent of consumers expect more jobs to become available in the next six months, up from 14.4 percent last month. Those expecting fewer jobs to become available decreased from 26.3 percent to 19.3 percent.
Regarding income expectations, the board said 20.7 percent of consumers anticipate a gain, down from 22.0 percent in November.
