Consumer confidence falls sharply in January

The Getulio Vargas Foundation’s Consumer Confidence Index (ICC) fell sharply in January on worries about job security and inflation.

The ICC weighed in at 116.0 for January, down from 119.6 in December. It was the first decline after three months of gains, the foundation said.

The index is based on a scale of 1 to 200, with 100 as neutral.

Foundation economists said consumers are worries about 2012 because of the spreading European crisis and because of Brazilian inflation, which ended 2011 at 6.5%.