Utah’s consumer sentiment rose 2 percent in January (from 79.8 in December to 81.3), according to the recently released Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute’s Survey of Utah Consumer Sentiment.
Nationwide, a similar survey by the University of Michigan found that sentiment rose 13.3 percent — from 69.7 to 79 — among Americans as a whole during the same time.
“Utah consumer sentiment begins 2024 continuing its upward trend with a third consecutive monthly increase, reaching its highest rating since October 2021,” said Phil Dean, chief economist at the Gardner Institute. “This recent trend signals growing economic optimism and coincides with the remarkable resiliency seen in the Utah and U.S. economies over the past few years. Despite higher interest rates and global uncertainty caused by wars and trade conflicts, the remarkably resilient economy expanded in all four quarters of 2023, buoyed by strong labor markets, continued robust consumer spending, and elevated-but-moderating inflation. Notably, with sizable U.S. consumer sentiment increases in the past two months, U.S. sentiment is closing the gap with Utah consumer sentiment, which tracks directionally but has historically exceeded U.S. sentiment.”
The Utah consumer confidence survey uses key questions from the University of Michigan’s Survey of Consumers. These questions measure residents’ views of the present economic situation and their expectations for the economy in the future. Data gathered from the key questions are used to create the consumer confidence index for Utah. Demographic questions are included in the questionnaire to allow for additional analysis of the data and to assess the representativeness of the sample.
The full results of the survey are available online at the Gardner Institute website, https://gardner.utah.edu.