Utah’s consumer sentiment was essentially unchanged in March (70.2) compared to February (70.4), according to the Kem C. Gardner Institute’s Survey of Utah Consumer Sentiment. A similar survey by The University of Michigan found sentiment fell from February (67.0) to March (62.0) among Americans as a whole.
“The relatively unchanged index from February to March reflects continued uncertainty among Utahns about the economy as they face mixed economic signals,” said Gardner Institute chief economist Phil Dean. “Negative economic signals include higher interest rates and the banking crisis that began with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March. Positive economic signals Utahns may notice include a strong local labor market and improvements in inflation. Overall, the positive and negative signals don’t appear to have influenced the sentiment of Utahns.”
The Utah Consumer Confidence Survey uses key questions from the University of Michigan’s Surveys 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 and methodology are now available online.
