More Optimism About Buying Climate Signals Spending Rebound
Consumer spending may be set to emerge from a weak first quarter as Americans last week became more upbeat about the buying climate than at any time in the last 15 years and optimism about personal finances reached a decade high, Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index figures showed May 25.
Highlights of Bloomberg Consumer Comfort
• Buying-climate gauge jumped to 46.7, highest since December 2001, from 44.8.
• Measure of personal finances increased to 62.1 last week from 60.6.
• Sentiment about the national economy eased to 43.9, lowest since February, from 45.3.
• Overall comfort measure was 50.9 after 50.2.
Key Takeaways
Americans are gaining confidence in their financial well-being amid buoyant stock prices and improving property values, and steady job gains should give way to burgeoning wage growth.
At the same time, their soaring post-election optimism about the U.S. economy continues to evaporate. Together the gauges paint a picture of still-strong consumer comfort that should help keep household purchases as the engine of growth as the economy emerges from a soft patch at the start of 2017.
Other Details
• Sentiment in the Northeast soared to 54.6, the highest since March 2007, from 51.4; comfort also rose to a nine-week high in the West while easing in the South and Midwest.
• Comfort continues to be divided along party lines, with Republicans’ sentiment outpacing that of Democrats and political independents.
• Full-time workers were the most upbeat since early April, while sentiment among unemployed respondents was at a four-week high, showing sustained strength in the labor market.
