A measure of US consumer confidence slid to a nine-month low in August as worries about job growth and the economy overshadowed a pause by the Federal Reserve in raising interest rates, a survey showed on Tuesday.
The Conference Board said its index of consumer sentiment dropped in August to 99.6 - its lowest since November 2005's 98.3 - from 107.0 in July. Sentiment scaled a high for the year of 109.8 in April.
The median forecast of 86 economists polled by Reuters had called for the index to fall to 103 in August. Estimates ranged from a low of 99 to a high of 106.8.
"Less favourable business conditions coupled with a less favourable job scenario have resulted in the largest one-month decline in confidence since Hurricane Katrina last year," Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center, said in a statement.
The Fed's policy-setting committee voted to leave its benchmark federal funds rate steady at 5.25 percent on August 8 after some two years of raising official US short-term rates but left the door open to future rate increases in case inflation proved tenacious.
The business research group's present situation index dropped to 123.4 from 134.2 in July, while the survey's expectations component fell to 83.8 from 88.9. The Conference Board's one-year inflation expectations index rose to 5.5 percent in August from 5.1 percent in July.