News

Survey: Consumers glad to see 2008 gone

By Tom Wanamaker

ALBANY — Consumer confidence among upstate New Yorkers rose for the second consecutive month in December, mirroring a statewide trend.

Upstaters’ overall consumer confidence index jumped another point last month, to 54.4, up from 53.4 in November and from 49.5 in October, according to a monthly survey released by the Siena Research Institute Monday. In December 2007, upstaters’ consumer confidence stood at 66.3.

Statewide, consumer confidence measured 57.1 last month, up from 55.6 in November and from 51.6 in October. In December 2007, statewide consumer confidence was 69.0.

But New York’s overall consumer confidence lags behind the nation as a whole. Nationally, the confidence index was 59.1 in December, up from 55.7 in November and higher than 57.6 in October. National consumer confidence was 75.5 in December 2007.

“With a majority of New Yorkers saying that they are worse off economically today than they were a year ago, most are happy to see 2008 come to an end,” said Don Levy, SRI’s director, in a press release accompanying the survey. “Not one of our indices ever matched the point at which we started the year and all buying plans are down from this time last year.”

Despite the slight gains in confidence, a vast majority of New Yorkers plan to keep their wallets in their pockets over the next six months, as most say they will avoid purchases of big-ticket items. Only 8.4 percent said they plan to buy a car or truck over the next six months, while other goods and services — computers (10.2 percent plan a purchase), furniture (10.8 percent), homes (2.5 percent), and major home improvements (13.2 percent) will face a similar lack of customers.

Although gasoline prices have retreated significantly from their levels last summer, almost half of upstaters surveyed, 48 percent, said that high gas prices caused them “serious” or “somewhat serious” financial problems in December. In both July and August, 79 percent of upstaters said high gas prices were a problem.

Two-thirds of upstaters, 66 percent, said high food prices raised similar concerns for them in December.

“Fewer and fewer New Yorkers are suffering from the cost of gas with prices below two dollars while two-thirds continue to dread the trip to the grocery store. But getting some relief with fuel has only kept overall confidence from falling further rather than stimulating weary and worried consumers to spend,” Levy said.

The survey was conducted in December 2008 via random phone calls to 1,000 state residents over age 18. Since consumer confidence is expressed as an index number developed after statistical calculations to a series of questions, “margin of error” does not apply. Buying plans carry a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.1 percentage points.

Full survey data is available online at www.siena.edu/sri/cci.

Reader Comments

Submit a Comment