Demoskop shows consumer confidence plummets to record low in March

The consumer confidence index dived to a ten-year low in March on worries over the slowdown in economic growth and the soaring jobless rate, private polling agency Ipsos-Demoskop said yesterday. Demoskop's consumer confidence index fell by 11 points to 68, its lowest level since February 1992. The monthly sub-index indicating propensity to spend fell by six points to an eight-year low of 78 points, and the economic climate sub-index, showing consumer beliefs about the current and future state of the economy, fell 18 points to 53. Every month Ipsos-Demoskop polls a group of 999 consumers, who are asked several questions about their spending plans and views of the economy. Each question carries a range of numerical answers between zero and 200, with zero denoting the most negative answer and 200 the most positive. The indices express an average of the answers. (Reuters)