The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index registered 118.5 (1985=100) in March, virtually unchanged from the February reading of 118.9.

The Present Situation Index advanced slightly to 144.1 and continues to run at a 27-year high. The Expectations Index declined by about half a point and currently stands at 101.4.

The Consumer Confidence Survey is based on a representative same of 5,000 U.S. households. It is conducted monthly for The Conference Board by NFO Research, Inc., of Greenwich, Connecticut. While the proportion of consumers labeling current business conditions as good increased modestly, so did the proportion who believe present conditions are bad. Consumers are more positive about current job prospects than they were in February. More than 33% of the households say jobs are plentiful today, up from 32.5% in February.

Consumers Singal Continuing Growth Ahead

Despite some concerns about an economic moderation ahead, consumer confidence continues to run at relatively high levels, says Lynn Franco, Associate Director of The Consumer Research Center. The message from consumers is that both business and employment conditions will remain upbeat through the spring and summer. Only 5.8% of American consumers look for the economy to cool off significantly during the next six months, down from 6.6% in February. More than 15% look for business conditions to improve, about the same figure posted in February.

Some 14.8% of those polled anticipate fewer jobs over the next six months, up from 13.9% in February. The same proportion of consumers look for their incomes to rise as in February.

Biggest gains in confidence over the last three months versus the same period a year ago have been in the Middle Atlantic states. Smallest gains have been in the Mountain states.

Conference Board
U.S. Consumer Confidence

	Mar 97(p)	Feb 97-R	Jan 97	Dec 96
Consumer Confidence	118.5	118.9 1	18.7	114.2
Present Situation	144.1	144.3	141.2	135.7
Expectations	101.4	101.9	103.8	99.9

	Nov 96	Oct 96	Sep 96	Mar 96
Consumer Confidence	109.5	107.3	111.8	98.4
Present Situation	133.4 1	24.6	128.5	110.0
Expectations	93.5	96.7	100.7	90.7

(p)"Preliminary.
(r)"Revised.
March 25, 1997 The Conference Board

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