Mass. consumer confidence hits 12-year high
Consumer confidence in Massachusetts reached its highest point in more than 12 years, helped by an improving job market, according to the group Mass Insight Global Partnerships.
Mass Insight’s consumer confidence index for the first quarter of the year rose from 97 to 106, crossing the 100-point threshold for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2006 and reaching its highest level since a reading of 109 in the second quarter of 2002.
A reading of higher than 100 represents a positive confidence level.
Mass Insight Chair, CEO and Founder William Guenther said following several quarters of “seesaw” scores, “this is the first time in two years we’ve seen the index consecutively increase, which may be a new trend resulting from an improving economy.”
Fred Breimyer, a regional economist with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), cited two chief reasons for the surge, “declining unemployment is reaching levels much closer to the historical average and the sharply lower gasoline prices.”
Guenther added: “With more people back to work and with reduced transportation and home heating costs, people have more money to spend. Furthermore, a large majority of those we surveyed indicated that now is a good time to spend – and that drives consumer confidence.”
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