Client confidence declined sharply in February as extra Individuals felt uneasy in regards to the future state of the US economic system, in accordance with new information launched Tuesday morning.
The Convention Board’s Client Confidence Index for February got here in at a studying of 98.3, a major drop from January’s revised 105 studying and in need of the 102.5 studying anticipated by economists.
“In February, client confidence registered the most important month-to-month decline since August 2021,” stated Stephanie Guichard, senior economist of world indicators at The Convention Board. “That is the third consecutive month-on-month decline, bringing the Index to the underside of the vary that has prevailed since 2022.”
The “Current Scenario Index,” which measures customers’ evaluation of present enterprise and labor market situations, fell to 136.5 in February from 139 in January.
The “Expectations Index,” which tracks customers’ short-term outlook for earnings, enterprise, and labor market situations, additionally fell to 72.9 in February from 82 final month. Traditionally, a studying under 80 in that class indicators a recession within the coming yr. This was the primary time since June 2024 that the index got here in under that threshold.
In the meantime, common 12-month inflation expectations jumped from 5.2% final month to six% in February.
“This enhance seemingly mirrored a mixture of elements, together with sticky inflation but in addition the current bounce in costs of key family staples like eggs and the anticipated affect of tariffs,” Guichard stated. “References to inflation and costs on the whole proceed to rank excessive in write-in responses, however the focus shifted in the direction of different matters.”
“There was a pointy enhance within the mentions of commerce and tariffs, again to a stage unseen since 2019. Most notably, feedback on the present Administration and its insurance policies dominated the responses.”
