· Consumers have generally taken a dim view of the economy. In December there were 17.8% more pessimists than optimists among consumers, an increase of 3.2 percentage points from November and 1.0 percentage points from December, 2004.  Until the recent deterioration in consumer confidence, it had shown an improving trend starting in early 2004. In spite of the generally pessimistic view of consumers,  retailers have consistently been, on balance, optimistic.  In December the balance of optimists for retail trade was 23.0%, up from 22.0% in November and from a -6.7 in December of 2004. The contrast between the trends in consumer confidence and that of the retailers is shown in the second chart.

· Similar trends are found in comparing confidence in the Industrial and Constructions sectors, as shown in the third chart.  Except for a small excess of pessimists in late 2001 optimists have until recently outweighed pessimists in the Industrial sector while there has been a preponderance of pessimists in the construction sector. In December, however there was another slight excess of pessimists in the industrial sector as the 6.7% excess of optimists in November fell 7.4 percentage points to 0.7% excess of pessimists. The 6.5% excess of pessimists in the construction sector in December was 2.0 percentage points above November but it was 12.5 percentage points lower than that of December, 2004.