U.S. Consumer Confidence Drops To Lowest Level Since February 2021

(RTTNews) - Consumer confidence in the U.S. continued to deteriorate in the month of June, according to a report released by the Conference Board on Tuesday.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index slid to 98.7 in June from a downwardly revised 103.2 in May. Economists had expected the index to drop to 101.0 from the 106.4 originally reported for the previous month.

With the continued decrease, the consumer confidence index fell to its lowest level since hitting 95.2 in February of 2021.

"Consumer confidence fell for a second consecutive month in June," said Lynn Franco, Senior Director of Economic Indicators at The Conference Board. "While the Present Situation Index was relatively unchanged, the Expectations Index continued its recent downward trajectory—falling to its lowest point in nearly a decade.

"Consumers' grimmer outlook was driven by increasing concerns about inflation, in particular rising gas and food prices," she added. "Expectations have now fallen well below a reading of 80, suggesting weaker growth in the second half of 2022 as well as growing risk of recession by yearend."

The report showed the expectations index tumbled to 66.4 in June from 73.7 in May, hitting its lowest level since March of 2013.

Meanwhile, the present situation index showed a much more modest decrease, edging down to 147.1 in June from 147.4 in May.

The University of Michigan released a separate report last Friday showing consumer sentiment in the U.S. tumbled by slightly more than initially estimated in the month of June.

The report showed the consumer sentiment index for June was downwardly revised to 50.0 from the preliminary reading of 50.2.

The consumer sentiment index is down sharply from the final May reading of 58.4, plunging to its lowest level on record.