Consumer confidence in the U.S. fell again in March, as a survey showed consumers were nearly unanimous in the opinion that the American economy had already tumbled into a recession.

The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers fell to 69.5 in March, from 70.8 in February and well below the 88.4 from the same month last year.

Economists had been expecting the index to come in at 70.

“A recession has occurred whenever the Sentiment Index has declined as much as it has fallen during the past year, including the recessions occurring from the mid 1950’s to the early 2000’s,” according to Richard Curtin, director of the Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers.

The index of consumer expectations fell to 60.1 in March, down from 62.4 in February, and again well below the 78.7 from March of last year. The expectations index has fallen 31% since January 2007, compared with a 24% drop prior to the 1990 recession and a 30% drop before the 2001 recession.

According to the survey “financial distress was widespread in March” as “more households reported that their financial situation had worsened than anytime since 1991 and more consumers cited high fuel and food prices as the primary cause for their financial distress than anytime since 1982.”

Looking ahead, the responses were equally as negative, with three-quarters of respondents expecting bad financial times for the national economy. This level of negative expectations has only been recorded in prior periods of recession, the Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said in a release.

“The slew of confidence indicators for March has indicated increasing pessimism on the part of consumers,” said RBC economist Rishi Sondhi in a note. “However, the spending data, while noticeably softer in the first quarter, has yet to see the collapse that the confidence figures have seen.”