Strong Inflation, Anxious Consumers Add Up to More Worries That Recession Has Already Arrived
The case that a recession is looming over the U.S. got stronger Friday, as blistering inflation and historic lows in consumer sentiment painted an increasingly dark economic picture.
As if the consumer price index increase of 8.6% wasn’t bad enough news, that release was followed later in the morning by the University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment.
That widely followed gauge of optimism registered a paltry 50.2, the lowest in survey data going back to 1978. That’s lower than the depths of the Covid outbreak, lower than the financial crisis, lower even than the last inflation peak back in 1981.
Taken together, the data add up to an outlook that is not good for those hoping the U.S. could skirt its first recession since the brief pandemic downturn of 2020.