Consumer confidence worldwide is the lowest since the peak of recession

According to the quarterly survey by the Nielsen Company global consumer confidence declined in the second quarter to the lowest level since the second half of 2009, the height of the global economic downturn. In the United States consumer sentiment was weaker than one and a half year ago.

The survey reveals that consumers across the globe continue tightening their belts and plan to cut their expenses on different luxuries and extra things.

31% of US consumers say they have no spare cash for discretionary spending. The same feeling is shared by 25 percent of consumers in the Middle East and Africa and 22 percent of Europeans.

In China consumer confidence also dropped amid rising inflation while Middle East also shows decline. The biggest decrease was found in Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

"Weak economic figures, slowing manufacturing performance and inflation in Asia, an intensifying debt crisis in Europe and continuing political instability in the Middle East, combined with rising household expenses in the U.S., have taken their toll on consumers' fragile confidence," said Venkatesh Bala, chief economist at The Cambridge Group, a unit of Nielsen.

"Hopes for full global recovery in the next 12 months substantially weakened in the second quarter as the majority of consumers around the world remained in a recessionary mindset."

Meantime, UK and France featured a positive movement in confidence in the second quarter while the level of morale in both countries remained below the European average.

Global consumer confidence average 89 (-3)

United States 78 (-5)

Germany 88 (-4)

UK 72 (+5)

France 69 (+8)