Five years after the onset of the global recession of 2008 — 2009, the sluggish pace of recovery and worries over employment and financial security continue to weigh heavily
on consumer sentiment in developed economies.
In a quarterly - earnings call on Wednesday, Penegor said that the presidential election is
weighing on consumer sentiment and, in turn, people are spending less at restaurants like Wendy's.
The final
read on consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan showed a slight decline from to 95.1 in September from 96.8 in August.
Further, half of the survey's 2,000 respondents say that they expect holiday shoppers to spend less because of the U.S. government shutdown earlier this fall, which put a
damper on consumer sentiment.
Just as important, at a time when fears over China's slowing economy are widespread and there's evidence of retail saturation in the country's major metropolitan areas, nearly half of survey participants said they expect to be better off financially in the next 12 months — and they are eager to spend, contrary to gloomy assumptions about the drag of sluggish economic
growth on consumer sentiment.
Americans are more positive about the direction of the economy, as consumer confidence reached its highest level since October 2007, according to a Thomson Reuters / University of Michigan
index on consumer sentiment.
(MCT)-- A
gauge on consumer sentiment this month reached the highest level since 2007, thanks to cheerier expectations and a rosier outlook on current economic conditions, according to data released Friday.
Beemer predicts that 40 percent of luxury stores could close in the next 18 months,
based on consumer sentiment he's seeing in the surveys his firm conducts.
It's too early to tell what effect the recent spike in market volatility will have
on consumer sentiment, so we'll continue to watch that closely.