Sections: Economy

Consumer Sentiment Continues Post-Election Surge in January

Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index. (Photo: Reuters)

The Survey of Consumers, a closely-watched gauge of consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan, continued its post-election rally in January. Coming in at 98.4, it’s up from the preliminary reading of 98.1 and consumers expressed the high level of confidence in 12 years.

Economists were looking for the reading to remain at 98.1.

“Consumers expressed a higher level of confidence January than any other time in the last dozen years,” said Survey of Consumers chief economist, Richard Curtain. “The post-election surge in confidence was driven by a more optimistic outlook for the economy and job growth during the year ahead as well as more favorable economic prospects over the next five years.”

Consumers also reported much more positive assessments of their current financial situation due to gains in both incomes and household wealth, though relative to the future are still lagging. Consumers anticipated the most positive outlook for their personal finances in more than a decade in January.

Final Results for January 2017

	Jan	Dec	Jan	M-M	Y-Y
	2017	2016	2016	Change	Change
Index of Consumer Sentiment	98.5	98.2	92.0	+0.3%	+7.1%
Current Economic Conditions	111.3	111.9	106.4	-0.5%	+4.6%
Index of Consumer Expectations	90.3	89.5	82.7	+0.9%	+9.2%

Next data release: February 10, 2017 for Preliminary February data at 10am ET

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PPD Business Staff

PPD Business, the economy-reporting arm of People's Pundit Daily, is "making sense of current events." We are a no-holds barred, news reporting pundit of, by, and for the people.