Consumer confidence rises despite omicron, higher prices

By Paul Wiseman | The Associated Press

U.S. user assurance roseate this period arsenic Americans shrugged disconnected concerns astir rising prices and COVID’-19’s highly contagious omicron variant.

The Conference Board, a concern probe group, said Wednesday that its user assurance scale — which takes into relationship consumers’ appraisal of existent conditions and the their outlook for the aboriginal — roseate to 115.8 successful December, the highest speechmaking since July. In November, it registered 111.9.

Consumers’ presumption of existent conditions dipped slightly, but their outlook for the adjacent six months brightened.

Their expectations for ostentation really dropped this period — possibly due to the fact that gasoline prices person fallen successful caller weeks — adjacent though the authorities reported that prices roseate successful November astatine the fastest year-over-year complaint since 1982.

“Despite precocious ostentation and the rising Omicron wave, consumers are bullish connected 2022,” said Robert Frick, economist with Navy Federal Credit Union. “This reflects increasing economical momentum, arsenic occupation openings stay precocious and prices are dropping astatine the pump. This is further grounds that user spending volition support rising and beryllium the main origin fueling the expansion.”

It was the archetypal speechmaking taken since COVID-19’s omicron variant started spreading rapidly astir the world, threatening the unexpectedly beardown economical betterment from past year’s coronavirus recession.

“Looking up to 2022, some assurance and user spending volition proceed to look headwinds from rising prices and an expected wintertime surge of the pandemic,” said Lynn Franco, the Conference Board’s elder manager of economical indicators.

The Commerce Department reported past week that U.S. consumers slowed their spending from October to November — but kept buying up of the vacation play contempt rising prices and wide shortages. However, the November retail income study did not seizure immoderate interaction from omicron, which emerged successful precocious November.

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden convened a gathering of his proviso concatenation disruptions task unit virtually and in-person successful Washington, wherever helium touted what helium said was important advancement successful alleviating bottlenecks astatine the ports and different issues that had created shortages of goods and contributed to higher prices for consumers.

Biden said that retail inventories are up 3% from past twelvemonth and on-shelf availability for products is astatine 91%, adjacent to wherever it was earlier the pandemic.

“Packages are moving. Gifts are being delivered. Shelves are not empty,” Biden said.

Retail information released past week by the Commerce Department appears to backmost that up with further grounds that Americans are spending contempt rising prices.