WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — US consumer sentiment fell by 2.8 percent February from a January 11-year high as optimism has dissipated due to an unusually harsh winter, a statement from the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said.
“It is hard not attribute the February decline to the temporary impact of the harsh weather,” Surveys of Consumers Chief Economist Richard Curtin said in a statement on Friday.
Curtin explained that while there was an overall US economic decline in January, US consumer confidence was still at its highest levels in eight years.
Consumer sentiment declined the most in the US Northeast and Midwest, but the South continued to be optimistic, the statement said.
Low gas prices had an impact on lower income households as it narrowed the difference between low and high income households, according to the statement.
The University of Michigan Survey Research Center has conducted The Surveys of Consumers since 1946. The Surveys of Consumers pioneered the development of measures of consumer confidence and the data it collects serve as an indicator of the future of the US economy.
