Florida's consumer confidence is near a record low.
A University of Florida telephone survey of 412 consumers taken in August and released Tuesday rated their confidence at 62 points.
That's down six points from July, and only three points higher than the record low of 59 set in June 2008.
Chris McCarty, the university's economic and business research director, says it may indicate Florida is in or near a new recession.
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McCarty also says the decline may be the result of the debt ceiling debate in Washington, D.C.
That's because consumer confidence dropped in August despite other economic indicators that were little changed from July, when confidence increased by two points.
The index is benchmarked to 1966. A value of 100 is the level of consumer confidence that year.
Copyright AP - Associated Press
