Worries over the effectiveness of federal government policies weighed on US consumer sentiment in August, a survey showed today.
Investor's Business Daily and TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence said their monthly economic optimism index slipped to 54.8 in August from 56.2 the prior month, after holding steady for four months.
The federal policy component, which measures consumers' views on the effectiveness of government policies, suffered the biggest loss, falling to 49.1, the lowest since February 2001, from 52.7 in July.
"The boost we got last month from a tax cut is wearing off," said Mr Raghavan Mayur, president of TIPP, the polling unit of TechnoMetrica.
The personal financial outlook, which gauges how respondents feel about their personal finances in the next six months, crept down to 60.1 from 61.0.
However, the economic outlook index, which measures how consumers feel about the economy's prospects six months from now, rose modestly to 55.3 from 54.7 in July, suggesting consumers have hopes for a recovery.
The economic optimism survey is based on over 900 interviews with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points. The poll was conducted between August 4th and August 9th.