Consumer sentiment is off to a rough start in the New Year: Americans’ assessments of the buying climate sustained their largest three-week drop since the onset of the pandemic and national economy ratings hit a 10-month low this week, driving the overall Consumer Comfort Index to a 10-month low.
The CCI is down 4.7 points in three weeks, including 2.3 points since the last reading Dec. 20, to 45.6 on its 0-100 scale, its lowest since last February. Roughly half of its hard-fought gains during the course of the pandemic have been reversed, with the CCI now 12.6 points off its pandemic high in late August.
In the face of 40-year-high inflation, the CCI subindex based on Americans’ ratings of whether or not it’s a good time to buy things is down 7.8 points in three weeks, including 5.0 points since Dec. 20, to an 18-month low of 36.4 – its steepest loss since the onset of the pandemic. This gauge is 14.3 points off its recent peak in late June, with roughly two-thirds of its pandemic gains erased.
Assessments of the national economy also have taken a hit, down 2.2 points in two weeks and 5.5 points in three weeks to a 10-month low of 37.1. That places the subindex a distant 17.7 points below its pandemic high in late August, setting its recovery back by more than half.
Conversely, the CCI measure based on Americans’ ratings of their personal finances is essentially unchanged at 63.3 this week. That’s a more moderate 7.7 points off its 18-month high in late August, with the personal finances subindex remaining 10.5 points better than its four-year low in May 2020. This subindex is 6.9 points higher than its historical average in ongoing weekly data since late 1985, while the buying climate and national economy gauges are about even with their long-term averages.
