Summary: US consumer confidence posts “trivial” decline in January; University of Michigan index slightly below consensus figure; vaccine news, expected fiscal programmes offset COVID deaths, protests.
US consumer confidence started 2020 at an elevated level. However, by March, surveys had begun to reflect a growing uneasiness with the global spread of COVID-19 and its reach into the US. After a plunge in April, US household confidence began to recover, albeit in a haphazard fashion.
The latest survey conducted by the University of Michigan indicates the average confidence level of US households deteriorated in January, maintaining its somewhat-erratic trend. The University’s preliminary reading from its Index of Consumer Sentiment registered 79.2, just below the generally expected figure of 79.5 and lower than December’s final figure of 80.7.
“Consumer sentiment posted trivial declines in early January despite the horrendous rise in COVID-19 deaths, the insurrection and the impeachment of Trump,” said the University’s Surveys of Consumers chief economist, Richard Curtin. Curtin noted “vaccines and a partisan shift in expectations due to the anticipated impact of Biden’s economic policies” had helped stem the decline.
