The economic outlook component of the survey declined to 64.5 (previous: 65.6) and now stands at its lowest level of 2012 as the percentage of respondents expecting their inflation-adjusted incomes to increase (9 percent) and better business conditions (29 percent) in the year ahead continued to move largely sideways, wrote Cooper Howes, a U.S. analyst for Barclays in New York.

FORBES: U.S. Need For Stimulus Diminishing