Republican Consumer Comfort Dips After Trump Impeachment Inquiry

(Bloomberg) --

Consumer comfort among Republicans dropped to their lowest level since July, a possible signal that an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump is weighing on his supporters’ economic outlook.

Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index for Republicans fell to 78.4 from 81.2 in the the week ended Sept. 29, according to data released Thursday. Meanwhile, comfort among Democrats rose to a nine-week high 57.7 from 55.5.

“There’s a strong political component to consumer sentiment, especially as it relates to views of the national economy and especially when other indicators are ambiguous,” said Gary Langer, president of Langer Research Associates, which conducts the survey for Bloomberg. “It’s logical that the prospect of impeachment is disheartening to Republicans who have high levels of trust in the president’s economic stewardship.”

Overall comfort rose slightly to 62 from 61.7, driven by increases in the personal finance and buying climate gauges and capping the best quarterly average since 2000. But the index on the state of the economy fell to a five-week low of 63.4, below the 12-month average of 63.8.

To contact the reporter on this story: William Edwards in Washington at wedwards29@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Scott Lanman at slanman@bloomberg.net, Jeff Kearns

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