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The Consumer Confidence Index, which improved significantly in April, again rose sharply in May, The Conference Board Inc., a New York-based research organization, announced today. The May index stands at 54.9, up from 40.8 in April and 26 in March. The baseline for the index is 100. UK-based research company TNS conducts the monthly Consumer Confidence survey of 5,000 randomly selected households. The cutoff date for this month's survey was May 19. "After two months of significant improvements, the Consumer Confidence Index is now at its highest level in eight months," Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center, said in the report. In September 2008, the index was 61.4. "Consumers are considerably less pessimistic than they were earlier this year, and expectations are that business conditions, the labor market and incomes will improve in the coming months," Franco said. "While confidence is still weak by historical standards, as far as consumers are concerned, the worst is now behind us." The percentage of respondents who said business conditions are "good" increased to 8.7% from 7.9% who said so in April, while those claiming business conditions are "bad" increased to 45.3% from 44.9% last month. The percentage of consumers expecting business conditions will improve over the next six months increased to 23.1% from 15.7%, while those anticipating conditions to worsen declined to 17.8 percent in May from 24.4% last month.
