Survey: Slight increase in New Yorkers’ consumer confidence

Consumer confidence in New York state barely grew last month, according to new data from the Siena Research Institute.

The institute, affiliated with Siena College in Loudonville, also said there’s no sign consumers are planning a buying surge anytime soon.

Consumer confidence rose 1.3 points in April, to a value of 66.8. The reading is 5 points below the nationwide confidence level.

A reading of 75.0 is the break-even point, where an equal percentage of people are optimistic and pessimistic. The consumer confidence index measures peoples’ willingness to spend, as opposed to their ability to spend.

“Overall, consumer confidence was flat in April; not horrible, but as yet still failing to make any real progress towards good,” said Doug Lonnstrom, founding director of the Siena Research Institute. “A majority of consumers still predict bad times for business conditions over the coming year, and (expect) tough times to last through 2015.”

Buying plans were up for vehicles, computers and homes. Buying plans were down for furniture and major home improvements.

The survey was conducted last month through telephone calls to 805 New York residents older than 18. There is no margin of error associated with the confidence readings, because they are index numbers developed in a series of statistical calculations.