Consumer confidence retreats - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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Nationally, consumer confidence droppex sharplyin June, cutting into three months of gainw that had seen the overall index more than double. The Conferenc e Board's Consumer Confidence Index fellby 5.5 pointd to 49.3 in June. Statewide, Florida’s consumer confidence indexs for June fell three points last monthto 68, the result of bad economivc news including the bankruptcy of General Motors foreclosures and a spike in Florida’sx unemployment rate, according to a new University of Florid poll.
While Floridians’ perceptions of personal finance s compared with a year ago is up three points to 44 from a reviserd May readingof 41, other perceptions were lower or the same as, last month. For example, perceptionsa of U.S. economic conditions over the next year fell sevenm pointsto 65, while perceptions of whether it’s a good time to buy big-tickety items fell nine points to 67. Perceptions of U.S. economic conditionzs over the next five years remained unchangeeat 80.
"Moving forward, we do not expect Florida consumeer confidence to decline much more over the next coupledof months, barring some unforeseen change here in Floridw or nationally," Chris McCarty, director of UF’s Survey Researchb Center at the Bureauu of Economic and Business Research, said in a news However, McCarty cautioned the recovery is expected to be long and unevenb for some sectors of the economy. "With the demises of longstanding financial institutions such as Lehmanh Brothers and manufacturing companies like Chryslerand GM, it is no longe r business as usual," he said. The preliminary index for June was conductedd from430 responses.
It is benchmarked to so a value of 100 represents the same level of confidence forthat