With the November presidential election 24 weeks away, an index measuring consumer sentiment on the economy dropped to a six-month low after its largest decline since 2021.
The plummeting confidence comes as President Joe Biden recently shrugged off the concerns while falsely claiming for the second time in less than a week that inflation was at 9% when he took office.
On Sunday, The Washington Post reported that the index of consumer sentiment, which measures the economic perceptions of Americans, dropped sharply amid nagging inflation and rising gas prices. In April, inflation remained well above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2%, hitting 3.4%. While the number is well below the high of 9.1% that was reached in June of 2022, inflation has remained above 3% every month since last summer.
Economic concerns have consistently ranked as the top issue for American voters ever since 2021, when inflation began rising steadily due to a massive uptick in government spending enacted by the Biden administration. A Gallup survey released at the end of March revealed that inflation was the top most worrisome issue for Americans, followed closely by immigration.
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