Deterioration in household morale in August

PARIS (Reuters) – US consumer sentiment deteriorated in August to its lowest level since December 2011, preliminary results from the University of Michigan’s monthly survey show on Friday.

Its confidence index fell to 70.2 from 81.2 in July, as economists and analysts polled by Reuters expected it to be unchanged.

The component of consumers’ judgment of where they are now has declined to 77.9 from 84.5 and that of outlook has fallen to 65.2 from 79.0 last month.

(Written by Marc Angrand)