For the third quarter, the consumer confidence in the United States climbed to the six year high as employment opportunities and personal finances improved. In Europe, also, consumer confidence improved significantly, reports Reuters.
US markets to recover slowly
According to a quarterly survey done by the global information and insights company Nielson, Americans were found to be the most bullish customers, showing that the world’s largest economy is on the path of recovery. An impressive performance of the stock market also created more wealth for investors leading to more consumers spending.
In the US, the labor market is steadily improving, also low interest rates are helping the stock and housing market to recover, benefiting the higher income consumers having more assets, as told by Venkatesh Bala the chief economists at the Cambridge group, a part of Nielsen
Bala further added “It’s still going to be a slow climb – we’re not going to see huge growth rates – but this improvement is recurring and it is sustainable.”
Europe recovering, but still a long way to go
Globally, Indonesia had the most bullish customer market followed by Philippines and India, but in all the three markets including Brazil the confidence level decreased.
The biggest hike in the consumer confidence, globally, was witnessed by Portugal with a sparkling 22 points; Ukraine faced the biggest drop by 13 points. The recovery of the Portugal helped boost consumer confidence in Euro zone countries that were facing hard times in a bid to cut heavy debt levels.
Other recent economic data also indicates that the euro zone economies are in recovering phase, but still Portugal, Italy, Greece and France were amongst the most unsatisfactory consumer markets globally. Hungary in the non Euro zone was the most depressed, but showed improvement in the third quarter.
About the survey
The findings of the survey were revealed on Wednesday, and were done prior to the 16 day partial government shutdown earlier this month. Nielsen survey was done between 14 August and 6 September, covering over 30,000 online consumers in 60 markets.
The Nielson Global Consumer Confidence was same in the third quarter compared to the previous quarter at 94, a rise of 2 points from the same quarter a year earlier. A reading of below 100 indicates relatively low consumer sentiments.
