Business and consumer confidence in the economy picked up between July and September, but companies, more than consumers were concerned about the current global financial meltdown and its impact on their operations.

The results of the latest survey of business and consumer confidence conducted by Professor Richard Curtin and his team from the University of Michigan in the United States, show that consumer optimism about the local economy moved up six percentage points above that recorded in the second quarter to 132.5.

Business confidence climbed from 103.1 in the second quarter to almost 115.9 in the period under review.

Euphoria

Curtin and his team attributed the increased optimism of consumers to the euphoria brought about by the outstanding performance of Jamaica's athletes at the recent Olympic Games in Beijing, China, ignoring the implications of the global financial meltdown and its likely negative effect on remittances, tourism and overall exports.

"Business firms judged current economic conditions much more favourably in the third-quarter survey than last quarter, but thought the economy would only marginally improve in the year ahead," Curtin reported in his findings.

Although businesses expressed greater confidence in the economy between July and September, the level of optimism was still significantly below the 134.2 recorded for the similar period a year ago.

But even though there were concerns about the global financial crisis, Curtin said worries about rising energy and operational costs and crime were more prominent among businesses.

In fact, just 51 per cent of those surveyed expected their firm's financial performance to improve, down from 65 per cent a year ago, while the number of businesses expecting their financial performance to worsen grew from 4.0 per cent to 17 per cent.

"The fallout from the credit crisis is likely to only worsen the finances of firms," Curtin emphasised.

Business, consumer confidence survey