The Conference Board’s confidence index dropped to 46.6, a second consecutive decline, following a reading of 49.3 in June, a report from the New York-based group showed today. The figure reached a record low of 25.3 in February.
Unemployment is projected to top 10 percent by early 2010, a gain that will erode buying power and prompt Americans to save more. Consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy, is projected to be slow to rebound, restraining any recovery from the worst recession in five decades.
“We have a consumer that’s still struggling,” Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida, said before the report. “Consumer spending will be soft, and the recovery is likely to be modest. We do need to see the job losses moderate.”
