NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
Consumer confidence paused last week following its recent run-up, failing to extend its surge into another week.
The ABC News/Money magazine Consumer Comfort Index, based on views of current economic conditions, stands at -5 on its scale of +100 to -100. It was -3 the week prior, its best level since April 2002. This is the first time since early October that the index has been numerically lower than in the previous week.
Though the index and all three of its components are above lifetime averages, consumer confidence is well below its +38 high, set in January 2000, and far from its pre-recession level of +13, set in February 2001. It averaged only -19 for 2003, its worst annual performance since 1994.
Forty-two percent of Americans rate the nation's economy as excellent or good, down from 44 percent the week prior. The lowest level of confidence for this category was set at 7 percent in late 1991 and early 1992.
Fifty-nine percent of respondents rate their own finances as excellent or good, unchanged from the previous week. Consumer confidence for this category bottomed out at 42 percent in March 1993.
The survey's buying gauge, which measures consumers' willingness to spend, slipped to 42 percent from 43 percent the prior week. The lowest level of confidence for this category, 20 percent, was set in the fall of 1990.
The ABC News/Money magazine Consumer Comfort Index represents a rolling average based on telephone interviews with a random sample of about 1,000 adults nationwide each month. This week's results are based on 1,000 interviews in the month ending January 25, 2004, and have an error margin of plus or minus three percentage points.
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