(The Conference Board: New York) -- The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, which had declined sharply in February, fell further in March. The Index now stands at 64.5, down from 76.4 in February. The Expectations index declined to 47.9 from 58.0. The Present Situation Index decreased to 89.2 from 104.0 in February.

The Consumer Confidence survey is based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households. The monthly survey is conducted for The Conference Board by TNS, a custom research company. The cutoff date for March’s preliminary results was March 18.

“Consumers’ confidence in the state of the economy continues to fade, and the Index remains at a five-year low [March 2003, 61.4]. The decline in the Present Situation Index implies that the pace of growth in recent months has weakened even further. Looking ahead, consumers’ outlook for business conditions, the job market and their income prospects is quite pessimistic and suggests further weakening may be on the horizon. The Expectations Index, in fact, is now at a 35-year low [December 1973, 45.2], levels not seen since the oil embargo and Watergate,” says Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center.

Consumers’ assessment of present-day conditions weakened further in March. Those claiming business conditions are “bad” increased to 25.4 percent from 21.3 percent, while those claiming business conditions are “good” declined to 15.4 percent from 19.1 percent.

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