Surveys point to consumer confidence decline

A consumer confidence report released Wednesday (June 29) by the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith mirrors the results in results released earlier in June by The City Wire and Talk Business.

The UAFS Index of Consumer Sentiment for the Fort Smith region was 56, down from the first quarter result of 58.5.

“There just wasn’t a lot of good news to be found during the second and third weeks of June when the survey was conducted,” Dr. Kermit Kuehn, director of the UAFS Center for Business Research and Economic Development, said in the statement. “Gas prices were still quite high, and employment and housing news did not inspire confidence. Then add a wobbly stock market and inflation and deficit headlines in the news and you just don’t have the ingredients for a very good pep rally. Area scores reflect this funk going into summer.”

CONSUMER COMPASS REPORT
The Consumer Compass Report released in early June indicated that people in the Fort Smith region are uncertain about personal finances and the overall economy.

The report is managed by The City Wire and presented by Benefit Bank.

Of the almost 600 Fort Smith regional residents surveyed in late May for the Consumer Compass Report, 13% said their financial situation was better than a year ago, up from 12% in the survey conducted in late February. However, 43% said their financial situation was worse than a year ago, up from the 38.5% in the February survey.

Survey results also showed that a majority of residents (54%) viewed their current and expected financial situation to improve or stay the same. However, the poll did indicate a shift in a small number of those surveyed who now believe the situation is worsening.

“There has been a remarkable amount of consistency in the polling data on these subjects during the course of a year. Unfortunately, citizens in the Fort Smith region remain fairly pessimistic about economic conditions as it would appear that little has been done to recover from the psychological cliff we fell off of in the recession of 2008 and 2009,” noted Roby Brock, with Talk Business Research. Brock, with his Talk Business website, also is a content partner with The City Wire.

TALK BUSINESS POLL
Just a few days after the Consumer Compass Report was released, Brock followed with a statewide consumer confidence poll — the Arkansas Consumer Confidence Report — that indicated Arkansans were less positive about economic conditions and plan to spend less.

In a survey of 554 Arkansans conducted June 9, only 17% said they planned to spend more money in the next 6 months, while 50.5% said they would spend less. Those numbers were in sharp contrast to our survey three months ago that showed 41% planned to spend more with 29% saying they’d spend less.

57% of those who planned to spend less said they were conserving money, while only 4% thought the costs of goods and services would be lower in the near future.

And, retail gasoline prices — which are averaging about $1 higher than a year ago — were largely to blame. 69% of respondents said higher gas prices have impacted other areas of spending, while 21.5% said their spending habits were unchanged due to higher gas prices.