Americans’ economic expectations are their brightest since February 2020 in the latest Consumer Comfort survey, a new high as the nation emerges from its pandemic lockdowns.
A third of Americans say the economy is getting better, up 14 percentage points since December, matching its largest advance since the four-month period ending January 2015. Views that it’s worsening have declined in tandem, to 31 percent, with the rest saying it’s staying the same.
This monthly measure of consumer expectations buttresses results from the weekly Consumer Comfort Index, based on ratings of current economic conditions. After its best three-month advance in 35 years of ongoing data, the CCI hit a new pandemic peak this week, 54.2 on its 0-100 scale.
That said, the CCI’s pace of growth slowed to a nonsignificant 0.3 points, after a 5.3-point advance in the previous month and 10.7 points since early January.
The index, based on Americans’ ratings of their personal finances, the national economy and the buying climate, has recouped more than two-thirds of its total pandemic losses. Still, it remains 8.8 points below its pre-pandemic level last March and 13.1 points off its two-decade peak at the start of 2020.
