Global Consumer Confidence Improves Further in Third-Quarter

Consumer confidence in the United States, the world's leading economy, jumped in the third-quarter and improved globally, according to a survey.

India remained the most bullish consumer market, while Italy became the most pessimistic the worldover, showed the poll by global insights provider Nielsen.

The Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index rose one-point in the third-quarter to 98, the survey showed. The index has been steadily rising since the first-quarter of 2012.

Europeans More Pessimistic

American consumers were the seventh most cheery globally, with their score rising four points to 108 as optimism about job prospects continued to swell.

Americans were also a tad more upbeat about the outlook for their personal finances in the third-quarter than they were in the second-quarter, unlike Europeans, who were more pessimistic, reflecting doggedly low wage growth.

Australia posted the biggest increase in confidence from the preceding quarter, by 12 points, followed by Slovenia and Thailand with nine and eight-point increases respectively.

Chile logged the sharpest drop in confidence, by seven points, followed by the Philippines with a five-point decline. Italy and Ukraine logged four-point decreases each.

Louise Keely, a senior vice president at Nielsen, said: "US consumers are now feeling far more confident than in previous years of the recovery due to consistently good job market trends, reflected in steady payroll growth and falling unemployment over the course of 2014.

"They are also benefiting from lower gasoline prices and a gradually improving housing market. In the coming months, as we start to see more people re-entering the workforce and meaningful wage growth, this is likely to translate into broad-based gains in consumer spending."

The Nielsen survey was conducted online between 13 August and 5 September and covered more than 30,000 consumers across 60 markets.