Economic Sentiment Recovers As Consumer Confidence In The U.S. Housing Market And Broader Economy Grows

The HPS-CivicScience Economic Sentiment Index (“ESI”) is a “living” index that measures U.S. adults’ expectations for the economy going forward, as well as their feelings about current conditions for major purchases. The primary goal of the Index is to accurately measure movements in overall national economic sentiment and to provide a more sophisticated alternative to existing economic sentiment indices. Unlike other prominent indices that release consumer sentiment estimates infrequently, the HPS-CivicScience Index is updated in real time as responses are collected continuously every hour, every day. Large-scale cross-tabulation of survey responses and consumer attributes enable more granular analyses than are currently possible through prevailing measures.

Excerpt From the Latest Reading: 

After a dip at the beginning of June, consumer confidence rose over the past two weeks to reach 53.3 points, according to the HPS-CivicScience Economic Sentiment Index (ESI). The index rose a total of 0.9 points, increasing from a reading of 52.4 on March 12th.

The bump in economic sentiment was driven by a 2.4 point increase in consumer confidence towards the housing market, as well as an equal increase in confidence in the broader economy.

Overall, four of the ESI’s five indicators increased during the two-week reading period. Consumer sentiment towards the labor market also rose from 47.3 points to 48.6 points, a 1.3 point increase. Additionally, confidence in making a major purchase rose by 0.5 points to 53.6 points. The only indicator to not experience an increase was consumer sentiment towards personal finances, which moved down 66.4 points to 64.4 points, a 2.0 point drop.

Check out the full reading.