The
final reading for the December Reuters/Michigan index of consumer sentiment
came in at 70.6 compared to the flash reading of 70.4 and the November final
reading of 67.4. This represented the first increase in three months.
Economists
had forecast the index to stay unrevised at 70.4.
The
latest Surveys of Consumers of the University of Michigan also revealed that
the index of consumer expectations climbed 7.6 percent m-o-m to 68.3 this month,
while the index of the current economic conditions rose 0.8 percent m-o-m to 74.2.
Commenting
on the December results, Richard Curtin, Surveys of Consumers chief economist,
noted that the improvement in consumer sentiment was mainly due to higher income
expectations among households with incomes in the bottom third of the
distribution. At the same time, consumers' assessments of their current
finances were unchanged at lower levels on the back of rising inflation.