Related Articles
Top Stories
May 27 2012 11:21
There's a price war raging between South Africa's cellphone networks after Cell C lowered the rates of its prepaid calls by more than 34%.
May 27 2012 13:09
The oversupply of golf estates has claimed another victim.
May 28 2012 07:53
The City of Cape Town has spent R175m running the Myciti bus service since the Soccer World Cup compared to an income of R35m, a report says.
Washington - US consumer confidence has deteriorated on concerns over unemployment and business conditions amid an uncertain economic outlook, according to a closely-watched survey released on Tuesday.
The Conference Board, a business research firm, said its consumers confidence index, which had declined sharply in June, retreated further this month.
The index fell to 50.4 points from 54.3 last month, based on a survey of 5 000 US households, the firm said in a statement.
Most economists had expected the index to fall to 51.0 points in July.
"Consumer confidence faded further in July as consumers continue to grow increasingly more pessimistic about the short-term outlook," said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board's consumer research center.
"Concerns about business conditions and the labor market are casting a dark cloud over consumers that is not likely to lift until the job market improves," Franco said.
The economy emerged from recession in the middle of last year but growth has slowed down with the unemployment rate running at a high 9.5%.
Federal Reserve chairperson Ben Bernanke warned the outlook for the US economy was "unusually uncertain" Wednesday, saying the central bank could step in if the recovery fails.
- AFP