Utah consumer confidence dips, but up for year

Utah consumer confidence dipped in December, but still remains above the national level, according to a monthly survey released Tuesday.

The Zions Bank Utah consumer attitude index registered a 7.5-point decline for the month, but is up 13.2 points over the past year.

Consumer attitudes of the present economic situation also saw a slight decline in the Beehive State for the month, but were up 22.1 points for the year.

Nationally, the present-situation view of consumers was up for the month, reaching its highest level since February 2008.

"[U.S.] Consumer confidence rebounded modestly in December, propelled by a considerably more favorable assessment of current economic and labor-market conditions," Lynn Franco, director of economic indicators at the Conference Board, said in a statement.

Consumers across the country were moderately less optimistic about the short-term outlook in December, but even so, said Franco, "they are more confident at year-end than they were at the beginning of the year."

Americans seeing business conditions as "good" remained static at 24.8 percent, but those describing them as "bad" decreased from 21.8 percent to 19.6 percent.

Views of the business climate remained upbeat in Utah, with a majority — 52 percent — ranking business conditions as strong. That exceeds last month's record high in that category. Forty-three percent labeled these conditions as "normal" and just 5 percent said they were bad.

"Consumer attitudes about current business conditions are generally high and reflect positively on the holiday shopping season we have just experienced," said Scott Anderson, president and CEO of Zions Bank, which sponsors the Utah monthly survey.

But the state survey said the view for jobs and income gains over the near term are somewhat dim. Only 37 percent said jobs are plentiful now and only about a quarter said they expect the employment situation to improve over the next six months.

At the same time, a majority of Utahns expect home prices, gas prices, interest rates and the cost of living to increase over the next year, while just 24 percent expect to see an increase in their own income.