NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--U.S. overall consumer confidence fell last week, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll released Tuesday.
The consumer comfort index fell 4 points to -37 in the week ended Feb. 11, from -33 a week earlier.
According to the survey, 20% of respondents expressed confidence in the economy, down from 22% the week before. Also, 49% of those polled said their own finances were in good standing, down from 52% in the prior week. In assessing the buying climate, 26% of respondents said it was good, unchanged from a week earlier.
The consumer comfort index was based on a random survey of 1,000 respondents nationwide ended Feb. 11 The index measures typical Americans' confidence in three areas: the national economy, their own finances, and their willingness to spend money, according to the report.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
The index is derived by subtracting the negative response to each index question from the positive response to that question. The three resulting numbers are added and divided by three. The index can range from 100 (everyone positive on all three measures) to -100 (all negative on all three measures). The survey began in December 1985.
DATA SNAP: Euro-Zone Dec Indus Output Weaker Than Expected
Factory output in the 13 countries that shared the euro at the time fell 0.2% on the month and increased 1.3% on the year, Eurostat said. That compares with an upwardly revised 0.4% drop on the month and 3.1% increase on the year in November.
The market was expecting a rise of 0.6% on the month and 2.3% on the year, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey of economists last week. The November data was revised from a monthly drop of 0.5% and a 2.7% gain on the year reported last month.
The data are likely to fuel the debate about when the European Central Bank might follow the Federal Reserve and Bank of England and begin to loosen its monetary policy to counter an expected slowdown in the region's economy.
Although the ECB was widely perceived to have softened its hawkish stance after it left its main interest rate at 4% last week, several Governing Council members have since stressed that the bank remains more concerned about inflation than economic growth.
The data showed industrial production in Germany and France, the two biggest economies in the euro zone, grew on the month in December after falling the previous month. Output in Italy, the third biggest economy, also fell less in December than in November.
In the 27 countries that make up the European Union, output fell 0.2% on the month and rose 1.2% on the year, Eurostat said. That compares with a 0.3% drop on the month and 2.8% gain on the year in November.
The following table details monthly percentage changes in euro-zone industrial production growth in December and November.
UK ILO Unemployment rate edges down in the three months to December
The unemployment rate has declined to 5.2% in the last quarter of 2007, as the number of jobless workers decreased by 61,000 over the quarter. The number of people in employment has increased by 175,000 on the quarter.
The claimant count decreased by 10,800 in January from the previous month, while the number of vacancies has increased by 7,300.
The average earnings including bonuses have decreased 0.2% to 3.8%, while average earnings including bonuses leaped up 0.1% to 3.7%
Japan's current account surplus dips 4.7 pct in December, below forecast -UPDATE
TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Japan's current account surplus dropped 4.7 percent to 1.697 trillion yen in December from a year earlier as the trade surplus shrank due to rising crude oil prices, the Ministry of Finance said Wednesday.
The figure was smaller than market expectations for a surplus of 1.756 trillion yen, based on a poll by the Nikkei daily.
The trade surplus fell 16.8 percent to 1.013 trillion yen. Exports climbed 7.1 percent to 7.078 trillion yen and imports rose 12.5 percent to 6.065 trillion yen.
"The current account surplus shrank in line with the decline in the trade surplus because higher crude oil prices inflated overall imports," said a MoF official.
Imports of crude oil rose 49.2 percent and purchases of liquefied natural gas rose 28.6 percent.
The price of crude oil averaged 90.66 US dollars per barrel in December, up 54.7 percent from a year earlier.
"But exports have maintained their rising trend," said the official.
While exports to the US fell by 4.5 percent in December from a year earlier, exports to the EU rose 2.4 percent and shipments to Asia jumped 8.2 percent.
By product, exports of automobile rose 16.2 percent, while shipments of telecommunication equipments surged by 112.7 percent.
The services account deficit widened to 221.1 billion yen from 193.5 billion yen due to higher charter fees of vessels.
In December, the number of Japanese travellers visiting foreign countries fell 1.3 percent to 17.3 million and the number of visitors to Japan rose 13.8 percent to 8.35 million.
The surplus in the income account increased to 1.005 trillion yen from 839.9 billion yen, boosted by capital gains from securities investments by Japanese institutional investors.
As a result, the surplus in the goods and services account fell to 792.3 billion yen from 1.025 trillion yen.
The capital and financial account, which measures international fund flows, registered an outflow of 1.196 trillion yen, compared to an outflow of 1.075 trillion yen a year earlier.
For the whole of 2007, Japan's current account surplus rose 26 percent to an all-time high of 25.0 trillion yen.
The trade surplus rose 30.8 percent to 12.38 trillion yen, the first rise in three years.
Exports climbed 11.3 percent to a record 79.72 trillion yen in 2007 and imports rose 8.3 percent to 67.34 trillion yen, also an all-time high.
The surplus in the goods and services account rose 37.2 percent to 10.08 trillion yen.
The current account is the widest measure of a country's financial performance internationally because it includes investment flows as well as trade in goods and services.
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