American consumer confidence in the economy fell further in May, while inflation expectations rose. This emerged from preliminary figures from the University of Michigan on Friday.
The consumer confidence index fell from 77.2 in April to 67.4 at the beginning of this month.
Confidence in the current state of the economy deteriorated from 79.0 to 68.8. Respondents also became slightly less optimistic about economic expectations. This sub-index fell from 76.0 to 66.5.
Consumer confidence fell by about 13 percent in May, after three consecutive months of very little change. This drop of 10 index points is statistically significant and brings sentiment to the lowest level in about six months. This month’s sentiment trend is marked by broad consumer consensus, with declines across all age, income and education groups, according to Surveys of Consumers Director Joanne Hsu.
Inflation expectations for the next 12 months stood at 3.5 percent at the beginning of this month, compared to 3.2 percent at the end of April. Inflation expectations for the next 5 years rose from 3.0 to 3.1 percent.
Tags: consumer confidence continues decline
