The recent decline in worldwide consumer activity seems to have reached bottom or at least slowed its decline.

“Consumers worldwide appear to be in a holding pattern and we see evidence that consumer spending might be positioned to turn around,” said James Russo, vice president global consumer insights for The Nielsen Company, a worldwide data analysis and marketing agency. “There is no doubt that conditions remain tough for global consumers, with continuing widespread areas of weakness, but levels of decline seem to be moderating.”

February Worse for Just One Country

According to The Nielsen Economic Current scorecard of consumer behavior, only one major GDP nation (Germany) saw worsening consumer activity in February 2009 compared to the prior month. Derived from the Nielsen Economic Current (NEC), which monitors key consumer trends, the "scorecard ranks national economic performance on a scale of one to five, with one representing very strong growth (over 5 percent)," Nielsen said.

"One of the most fascinating insights that we've found within the NEC is...the similar [way] that markets are behaving and that consumers are behaving across regional boundaries," Russo said.

The scorecard ranks economic performance on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being "very strong." According to this scorecard, India and China continue to be the only countries that scored a one in February 2009, while Canada and Russia scored twos. The United States continues to score a four.

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