Consumer sentiment continued down this week, dropping to nearly a seven-month low as Americans’ assessments of their personal finances and the buying climate extended their largest declines since early in the coronavirus pandemic.
As supply and labor constraints continue to handicap the national economy, more hold pessimistic rather than optimistic views of its overall direction. Still, in a potentially positive sign, that’s held steady after a sharp downturn last month.
At 49.7 on its 0-100 scale, the CCI is down 1.5 points this week and 8.5 points from its pandemic high seven weeks ago, erasing its late spring and summertime gains. Its losses are broadly distributed, with declines among Republicans (-9.6 points) and Democrats (-11.3 points) now roughly balanced.
With inflation running high, the CCI subindex based on views of whether or not it’s a good time to buy things is down 2.7 points in a week and 9.1 points in a month to 40.8, a low since mid-February. Ratings of personal finances also continue to worsen, down 2.3 points in a week and 7.9 points from their pandemic peak in late August to a six-month low of 63.1. Both are in their largest declines since spring 2020.
The index’s third gauge, based on views of the national economy, stabilized at 45.1 this week after falling 10.0 points from its pandemic high seven weeks ago.
In the Consumer Comfort survey’s separate, monthly measure of expectations, 38 percent say the economy is getting worse, essentially the same as last month, though up from 33 percent in August. Fewer, 27 percent, think it’s getting better, down from nearly four in 10 this summer. The rest say it’s staying about the same.
This month’s -11-point better-worse margin compares with positive 4- to 6-point margins this summer. But it’s still better than last winter, when pessimism outpaced optimism by roughly 20 percentage points. It’s also better than the long-term average, -17 points, in data since March 1986.
