Nearly One in Four Consumers Uncomfortable With Their Debt; New data suggest fewer Americans intend to apply for credit in the months ahead.
Byline: Dennis Jacobe Synopsis: A new Experian/Gallup Personal Credit Index (PCI) poll shows consumers becoming more cautious about borrowing, with fewer intending to apply for credit in the months ahead. Add the rising cost of gas to the equation, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's recent...

Are American Consumers' Views of the Credit Markets Shaken? New early August poll shows credit crunch spreading even before events of late last week.
Byline: Dennis Jacobe Synopsis: A new Experian/Gallup poll, conducted Aug. 1-7, takes the temperature of the American consumer concerning the U.S. credit markets. Has the subprime credit crunch been contained or is it spreading across all consumer lending and borrowing? PRINCETON, NJ -- Last week,...

Consumers' Credit Perceptions Decline in June; New poll shows fewer Americans intend to seek new credit in the months ahead.
Byline: Dennis Jacobe Synopsis: Consumer credit perceptions hit a seven-month low in June, according to the new Experian/Gallup PCI poll. One result of this may be a reduction in the number of consumers seeking new credit in the months ahead. Still, the current consumer credit pullback seems...

Buy now, pay later: greening credit cards.
In the U.S., there are now more than two credit cards for every man, woman and child. As correspondent Lowell Bergman recently reported on PBS Frontline, With more than 641 million credit cards in circulation and accounting for an estimated $1.5 trillion of consumer spending, the U.S. economy has...

Dollar climbs on inflation data.
NEW YORK, Dec. 16 (Reuters) -- The US dollar rose sharply on Friday, posting its largest daily increase against the euro in almost three years, after strong US consumer price data trimmed expectations for further interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. The dollar rallied against major...

Consumer confidence slips in South Korea.
South Korea's consumers are showing almost the thinnest slice of optimism possible in that country's most recent survey of consumer confidence. According to a Bloomberg News story published in the International Herald Tribune (Neuilly) on May 9, 2006, consumer confidence sank for the third month in a row. ...

South Korea stimulates spending.
South Korea is working hard to combat higher oil prices with programs designed to stimulate consumer spending. The programs range from tax breaks to increased government spending, and according a July 26, 2005 news release issued by the Bank of Korea (BOK), South Korea's central bank, the programs are...

Singapore's consumer spending rises.
"Consumer spending has been rising as the labor market and the economy strengthened, and that is pushing prices higher," says a local bank economist in a Bloomberg News story published in the International Herald Tribune (Neuilly) on May 23, 2006. The Singaporean economy has been expanding recently. In the...

Chinese consumer spending grows strongly.
The last time Market: Asia Pacific looked at retail sales in China in detail (January 2006, 15:1), the analysis showed that the year-on-year rate of growth was steady. The perspective is different in the graph above. This time we consider month-to-month changes in retail sales. As expected,...

Missteps can cause headaches galore.
Under the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, individuals hoping to file a petition in U.S. bankruptcy court now need to attend a credit counseling session from an agency approved by the Office of the U.S. Trustee prior to filing. They also will require another counseling...