Ireland Consumer Confidence Largely Unchanged In May

(RTTNews) - Irish consumer sentiment was largely unchanged in May, holding at strong levels seen since the start of the year, survey data from the Economic and Social Research Institute showed Thursday.

The overall KBC Ireland/ESRI Consumer Sentiment Index eased to 98.5 from 98.7 in April. The reading had hit its highest level in more than a decade in January, at 101.1.

The 3-month moving average rose of the consumer confidence index rose again in May to 98.3 from 97.6 in April, suggesting an overall positive trend in consumer sentiment.

The expectations index of the survey climbed to a four-month high of 92.2 from 91.8 in the previous month.

The current conditions measure, meanwhile, dropped to 107.7 from 109. The decline was largely driven by a fall of 2.6 index points in how consumers view their current financial situation compared to 12 months ago while consumer's opinion on the current purchasing environment has remained largely unchanged this month, Ciara Morley, an economist at ESRI, said.