Economic confidence easing up slightly after posting gains in April and May, according to the latest results from TNS Canadian Facts’ Consumer Confidence Index released Thursday.

The overall Consumer Confidence Index now stands at 92.0, down 2.1 points from 94.1 recorded last month.

“In light of the new batch of negative economic news this past month, it seems that Canadians are taking a wait-and-see approach when it comes to their overall confidence in the state of the economy. Still, it says something that Canadians’ confidence didn’t fall off a cliff like it did last December when it hit rock bottom,” says Michael Antecol, vice president of TNS Canadian Facts and director of the marketing research firm’s monthly tracking study.

Two of the three other indices are down slightly,too. The Present Situation Index, which captures evaluations of the overall state of the current economic and employment situations, fell from 78.9 in May to 74.2 in June.

Likewise, the Buy Index, which gauges the degree to which people think the current period is a good time to make major purchases, which last month was at its highest point since July 2005, dropped 2.5 points — from 107.0 to 104.5 — perhaps reflecting recent increases in fixed-term mortgage rates.

In contrast the Expectations Index, which measures consumers’ estimation of the economy, household income and employment in the next six months, continued to rise for the sixth straight month and now stands at 103.3 – up 1.9 points, or two per cent, from May to June.

“An economic recovery needs confidence and confidence requires positive expectations. Since Canadians still expect the economy to improve going forward — barring any unforeseen economic calamity — the ingredients are still there for an economic recovery. Put another way, all the data point to Canadians still being in gear — they’re just waiting a bit before they hit the gas,” adds Dr. Antecol.

The suvey is conducted using the firm’s national bi-weekly telephone omnibus service, TNS Express Telephone. A total of 1,015 nationally representative Canadian adults were interviewed between June 8 and 11, 2009. For a survey sample this size, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

IE