The Biden campaign had hoped that a recent drop in inflation might lift voters’ views of the economy, but those hopes took a hit on Friday after the University of Michigan said its gauge of consumer sentiment fell to its lowest level in eight months in early July.
Preliminary results from the University of Michigan Survey of Consumers showed consumer confidence unexpectedly fell to 66 in July from 68.2 at the end of June. Economists had been expecting a modest increase to 68.5.
That was the lowest in eight months and a sign that sluggish inflation has not helped consumer confidence, which has been shaken by more than two years of the sharpest price increases in decades.
Joan Hsu, director of the survey, said consumers remain “intensely frustrated by persistently high prices.”
“Nearly half of consumers spontaneously expressed dissatisfaction that rising prices are causing their living standards to decline, matching the all-time high recorded two years ago,” Xu said.
Both indexes reflecting views of the current economic situation and those focusing on expectations declined in July.
Interestingly, the presidential debates, which attracted a great deal of attention from the media and politicians, did not seem to have an impact on consumers’ economic views.
“With the presidential election approaching, consumers felt a great deal of uncertainty about the trajectory of the economy, but there is little evidence that the first presidential debate changed consumers’ views of the economy,” Su said.
