It’s been a so-so year for American
consumers as 2013 winds down. While consumers are less pessimistic in November about their economic
prospects, the impact of October’s partial government shutdown, the lack of any meaningful accomplishments by the Congress, and the embarrassing mislaunch of the ObamaCare
website all contributed to a ho-hum reaction from consumers.
Bloomberg’s Christopher Wellisz (cwellisz@bloomberg.net) reports that the gap between positive and
negative expectations for the economy shrank to minus 14 from a two-year low of
minus 31 in October, according to data from the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort
Index. That's positive news.
Thomas Hinton of the American Consumer Council, a non-profit
consumer education organization, stated, “We are basically back to square one
in terms of consumer sentiment prior to
the government shutdown.” Hinton added,
“It’s not surprising that consumers have low expectations for government to
accomplish anything significant this year. This will not bode well for
incumbents in 2014 if the lack of progress continues.”
On a positive note, the American Consumer Council expects 2013 consumer
holiday spending to be near last year’s spending levels as a result of improved
economic conditions, pent-up demand for necessary consumer items and an
aggressive retail campaign to lure shoppers into stores before Thanksgiving. ACC
also expects online holiday spending to jump by 7% over 2012 according member
responses.
The American Consumer Council is a non-profit consumer education
organization with over 142,000 members and 44 state consumer councils. For
information, visit: www.americanconsumercouncil.org
