WASHINGTON, April 21: The US economic outlook deteriorated in March in the face of the Iraq war, terrorism fears and despairing consumers, a closely-watched barometer showed on Monday.

The private Conference Board’s index of leading economic indicators, which aims to predict activity in the coming months, fell 0.2 per cent in March after a 0.5-per cent drop in February.

“In addition to intensified nervousness over oil prices,war and the potential of a terror attack, it is the more fundamental plummeting of consumer expectations that raises the spectre of a fall-off in consumption growth,” said Conference Board economist Ken Goldstein.

“This is significant because without much investment or export growth, only consumption has been fuelling the economy.”—AFP