Consumers Are Not Feeling Good About Tariffs

Summary

Consumer sentiment continued to deteriorate in early April as households grew increasingly worried about tariff-induced inflation. Lower optimism isn't a positive development for actual spending, but it alone won't drive households into hidin

Short and Sour

Consumers are growing more and more pessimistic. Consumer sentiment slid to 50.8 in early April, which rivals the all-time low hit nearly three years ago (chart). Both the measures of consumers' views on current conditions and expectations for the future slid lower (chart) and the big takeaway from these data is households are feeling uneasy around tariffs. The release notes “about two-thirds of consumers spontaneously mentioned tariffs during interviews, up from about 40% in February and March of this year.”

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