Global consumer activity trends level off

Wed Apr 22, 2009 12:54am EDT
By Brad Dorfman
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Consumer activity is showing signs of leveling off after a sharp drop last year and could indicate a potential bottom in the global downturn, data released on Wednesday showed.
The monthly Nielsen Economic Current scorecard showed that activity in 10 of the 11 countries monitored remained at the same pace in February from January, with only Germany showing an uptick, to "neutral" from "negative."
The scorecard uses data collected by Nielsen on things like frequency of consumer shopping trends, consumer spending per trip, how much and what people are buying and where they are shopping.
"What we have seen is a slowdown in the rate of the decline. We have seen a bottoming out," said James Russo, vice president for global consumer insights at Nielsen. "We see a move toward neutral."
The scorecard is also one of the first releases Nielsen has seen that shows evidence the economy may be at a bottom, Russo said.
While the Economic Current shows possible signs of a bottom, a separate survey Nielsen will release on Wednesday shows consumer confidence is still falling.
The company's consumer confidence index, released twice a year, fell to a record low of 77 from 84 six months ago. The baseline for the index is 100.
SEARCHING FOR SAVINGS
Consumers continue to look for ways to save money in the slumping economy, the Economic Current data showed. Cutting down on out-of-home entertainment and spending less on clothes continue to be among the most favored ways of saving money.
U.S. consumers are also switching more to lower-priced store brands when they shop, with a 6.4 percent increase in the number of store-brand items purchased, Nielsen said.
In Russia, consumers are becoming more price-conscious and are looking for stores that offer wider choices so that they can buy everything they need in one shop, Nielsen said.
The Economic Current scorecard measures activity in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Nielsen's consumer confidence index is based on a survey of 25,420 Internet users in 50 countries and was conducted March 19 through April 2. The survey found that Russia, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates had the biggest falls in consumer confidence over the past six months as currency devaluation, weakening export markets and falling global commodity prices took their toll.
(Reporting by Brad Dorfman, editing by Matthew Lewis)