American consumer confidence has declined to its lowest level in more than a decade amid growing fears that the world’s largest economy will go into recession.
Sentiment has fallen by 9.4 per cent over the past month, faster than expected, according to a regular survey compiled by the University of Michigan. The reading of 59.1 for May was the lowest since 2011.
The drop “takes it deeper into recessionary territory”, Michael Pearce, senior US economist at Capital Economics, said. “But confidence has been a poor guide to consumption growth in recent years, so we would not read too much into that signal.”
Much of the weaker consumer sentiment reading was “directly linked” to rampant price growth, Pearce observed.
Sustained inflationary pressures have deepened concern over
