U.S. Consumer Confidence Hits 4-Year High in March : Economy: Conference Board says survey showed Americans have even more positive expectations for coming months.

American consumer confidence in the economy hit a four-year high in March, a sign that the United States is headed for a “reasonably vigorous economic expansion,” the Conference Board said Tuesday.

The business research group said consumers expressed more positive views about the present, and even more upbeat expectations about coming months, in a widely followed monthly survey on consumer sentiment.

Economists noted that the numbers had risen despite publicity about the Whitewater affair that has dogged the Clinton Administration. Allegations of the Clintons’ impropriety in pre-presidential land dealings, which have unsettled financial markets, evidently aren’t playing a role in how consumers are behaving.

But economists who follow the Conference Board data said rising interest rates and a fading stock market could blunt any further rise in its measurement of consumer confidence.

The Conference Board’s index of consumer sentiment rose from 79.9 in February to 86.7 in March, the highest reading since July, 1990.

The index, which uses a 1985 base of 100, is derived from a survey sent to 5,000 households nationwide that solicits answers to questions on subjects that range from appliance purchase plans to local job conditions.

Economists and financial market players see the consumer confidence index as a barometer of consumers’ willingness to borrow and spend money. Consumer spending is thought to account for about two-thirds of economic growth.

Fabian Linden, executive director of the Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center, noted the consumer confidence reading was 26 points higher than it was last October.

“Such an impressive increase in confidence suggests that we may well be on the way to a sustained and reasonably vigorous economic expansion,” he said.

David Wyss, an economist at DRI-McGraw-Hill Inc., a Lexington, Mass.-based economic forecasting firm, attributed the jump in confidence to stepped-up hiring by companies.

“We are seeing some decent employment increases recently,” he said. “That’s the major item in consumer confidence for the average American.”

Consumer Confidence

From a monthly survey of 5,000 U.S. Households. Index: 1985 = 100.

March 1993: 61.9

March 1994: 86.7

Source: Conference Board