US consumer confidence has risen over the past month, as the US public becomes more optimistic about employment prospects.
The Conference Board's consumer confidence survey found that consumer confidence has risen to 103.4 from 102.7 in December, the biggest rise since July, 2004.
The figures exceeded the expectations of analysts, who predicted that it would fall to 102. The figures are also more positive than the consumer confidence figures put out by the University of Michigan last Friday.
Consumer's employment expectations have also improved. Consumers who said that jobs are "plentiful" increased to 20.7% from 19.4%, while those claiming jobs are "hard to get" fell to 24.7% from 26.4%.
However expectations for businesses disimproved over the period. Those anticipating business conditions to improve in the next six months declined from 22.4% to 21.1% . Consumers expecting business conditions to worsen increased from 7.7% to 8.0%.
The results were announced on the same day that the Congressional Budget Office annouced that the US federal government will run a deficit of $368 billion in 2005. The figure is slightly lower than the record $412 billion dollar shortfall in the 2004 fiscal year that ended last September 30.
However, the Congressional Budget Office said that the actual figure may be higher, when the cost of US involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq is taken into account.
