US consumer confidence clumps
24/02/2004 - 17:23:12US consumer confidence slumped in February after January's 18-month high.
Sluggish job creation was blamed by the Confidence Board, a body which measures the consumer confidence index.
It fell 9.4 points from 76.7 in January to 87.3 in February and is drawn from a survey of 5,000 US households,
Slower job creation figures have impacted on economic growth figures, which have now started to fade.
People's expectations for the future fell 11 points to 96.8 and their confidence in the current situation fell 6.3 to 73.1.
