Danish consumer confidence down.

When Market: Europe last reviewed Denmark's consumer confidence (January 2007, 18:1) consumers were clearly concerned about several aspects of the Danish economy. But feelings have now changed slightly. True, the overall confidence indicator is in decline, falling from 11.8 points in January 2007 and 9.2 points in February 2007 to 8.8 points in March 2007.

But among the sub indexes, there are some bright spots.

Consumer hindsight, where respondents were asked to evaluate their own households' financial situation for the past year, drove the backward looking household index down from 12.9 points in February 2007 to 11.9 points in March 2007. But the forward looking household sub index has been increasing since January 2007 when it was 16.4 points. The forward looking household sub index grew to 16.7 points in February 2007, and accelerated even more strongly in March to 17.8 points.

Consumers didn't feel quite the same about the health of the Danish economy over the next year. In January 2007, the economy forward looking sub index was 7.0 points. The sub index declined to 4.5 points in February 2007, and then turned around slightly to 4.8 points in March 2007.

When asked about "Unemployment trends in the next 12 months," Danes told the Statistics Denmark surveyors they felt employment prospects were not improving. The sub index increased from minus 10.8 points in February 2007 to minus 8.6 points in March 2007-an increase in the unemployment trend meaning that more people were likely to be unemployed.

Durables sentiment moved from negative readings to just slightly positive.