What is the Consumer Confidence Index?
A consumer confidence index, or CCI, is a measurement tool that has to do with the current opinions of persons within a given country. Essentially, the consumer confidence index is a means of using a cross sample of the population to understand the current general feeling about the economy and what people believe will happen to the economy in the short term. In most cases, the consumer confidence index will make use of questions that help to capture the participants’ understandings about general business conditions, the current status of the job market, and the current relationship between income and making ends meet. Along with national programs that compile a consumer confidence index, there are also attempts from time to time to prepare a global confidence index. However, many financial and political analysts tend to consider the attempt to prepare any type of global report of this nature to be limited in value. Generally, it is felt that the more focused national indexes provide da
The most widely cited surveys are the Consumer Confidence Index, released monthly by the Conference Board, and the Indices of Consumer Sentiment and Consumer Expectations, conducted monthly by the University of Michigan. All measure how consumers feel about their own current financial situation, that of the overall economy, and their expectations for both in the near future.
