Consumer sentiment slumped as inflation expectations rose, despite otherwise strong signals in the economy, according to a closely watched survey released Friday.
The University of Michigan Survey of Consumers sentiment index for May posted an initial reading of 67.4 for the month, down from 77.2 in April and well off the Dow Jones consensus call for 76. The move represented a one-month decline of 12.7% but a year-over-year gain of 14.2%.
Along with the downbeat sentiment measure, the outlook for inflation across the one- and five-year horizons increased.
The one-year outlook jumped to 3.5%, up 0.3 percentage point from a month ago to the highest level since November.
Also, the five-year outlook rose to 3.1%, an increase of just 0.1 percentage point but reversing a trend of lower readings in the past few months, also to the highest since November.
“While consumers had been reserving judgment for the past few months, they now perceive negative developments on a number of dimensions,” said Joanne Hsu, the survey’s director. “They expressed worries that inflation, unemployment and interest rates may all be moving in an unfavorable direction in the year ahead.”
For the TLDR folks:
- Inflation is 3.5%, almost double the FED's target. Mortgage rates may rise even higher.
- Consumer Sentiment is almost 10% lower than last month. Consumers are losing confidence.
I swear, these so-called "economists" the leftist dems employ have to be actually retarded or so out of touch to not understand “consumer sentiment”. Hell they hire people that are music majors.
Sure we are beside ourselves with glee that inflation maybe, might be, kinda sorta be, cooling down a bit but it piles on each quarter nonetheless.
In reality, a few tech companies and government spending/hiring are what is driving what little growth exists.
Buying groceries, houses, cars, whatever is a nightmare for folks of more modest means that are not on the EBT/Section 8.....How's that for "sentiment" you leftist clowns?
