Americans’ Economic Expectations Slump Most Since 2008 on Virus

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. consumers’ economic expectations sank in March by the most since the depths of the last recession as the coronavirus pandemic tightened its grip on businesses across the country and rattled financial markets.

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort monthly gauge slumped 11 percentage points, the sharpest retreat since October 2008, to 46.5, figures showed on Thursday. March sentiment stands in sharp contrast to the previous month, when the index improved to the highest level more than a year.

At 34%, the share of respondents this month who said the economy was getting worse rose 13 points, the most since October 2013. A month earlier, the share was the smallest since mid-2002.

The sea-change in confidence will likely cascade through to retailers, many of which are temporarily shutting stores to help contain the spread of virus. Such a consumer-spending pullback puts the longest-running economic expansion in jeopardy.

In the meantime, the weekly measure of sentiment was little changed at 63 in the period ended March 15, after 62.7 in the prior week.

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