Consumers face the General Election concerned about the outlook for the economy, according to a new index measuring consumer sentiment. Developed by IIB Bank and the ESRI, it tries to measure consumer views on the outlook for the economy, employment prospects and their financial situation.

Consumer confidence has weakened since the beginning of the year, according to the Consumer Sentiment Index (CSI), with a fall in the value to 83.1 in March from 88 in February, 91.7 in January and 99.5 in March 2001.

Increasing concern about the outlook for employment after several high-profile redundancies and rising inflation explains the drop in confidence, according to IIB economist Mr Austin Hughes. Consumers are now less optimistic about economic prospects over the next 12 months, he added.

Consumer confidence began to fall in the second half of 2000 with consumers starting to worry about the economy before the economists, he said. The CSI hit its low point in October 2001, improved until the end of that year then started to decline again.