Rising inflation is having a negative effect on consumer confidence, according to the latest data from First Insight Inc. The report, titled, “The State of Consumer Spending: Inflating Impacting Consumer Confidence,” revealed that 75 percent of shoppers have less confidence to spend money today as the rate of inflation soars to a 40-year high.
The report also showed that 97 percent of consumers are reprioritizing how they spend “in order to afford their top four most critical purchases: groceries (56 percent), gasoline (43 percent), housing costs (29 percent), and health care (18 percent).” Authors of the report said 82 percent of those polled said they are searching “for less expensive ways to shop through sales and promotions, 40 percent are staying within a budget and 28 percent are simply buying less overall.”
Greg Petro, chief executive officer of First Insight, said with inflation at 8.5 percent, “rising prices will continue to impact all businesses for the foreseeable future” and send this most recent poll “indicates that many industries, which had hoped for a post-pandemic rebound in 2022, specifically hospitality, travel, and entertainment, may be faced with yet another difficult year.”
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