Americans keep feeling worse about this high-inflation economy
An early look at consumer sentiment in February shows just that. Sentiment dropped more than economists expected between the first two months of the year, reaching the worst level in a decade at 61.7 points, the University of Michigan reported Friday. That’s more than an 8% drop from the January level.Americans are concerned about their household finances in the light of rampant pandemic-era inflation. Respondents to the consumer survey also displayed the least favorable long-term outlook on the US economy in a decade.”Aside from inflation, there isn’t any other justification for sentiment to be so low, given the strength of the economy otherwise,” said Thomas Simons, money market economist at Jefferies (JEF), in a note to clients.But between the Federal Reserve’s stated intention to raise interest rates in March and the White House’s concessions that there is more work to do on lowering prices, confidence remains low that…
