Consumers’ inflation expectations held, while respondents showed more pessimism about the economy, according to the January Survey of Consumer Expectations, released by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Monday.
![Survey of Consumer Expectations](https://arizent.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/96cb7ca/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3560x2320+0+0/resize/740x482!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsource-media-brightspot.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com%2Faf%2F90%2F215d8116431fa20fa688076898ae%2Fbb-021219-fedsce.jpeg)
“Regarding their own financial situation, respondents were less optimistic about future credit availability, and fewer expect to be financially better off a year from now,” the survey noted.
Median inflation expectations remained 3.0% for the one-year period and a three-year horizon. “Inflation expectations at both horizons have been very stable over the past nine months,” according to the survey.
The expected earnings growth for one-year dipped to 2.4% from 2.5%. The mean perceived probability of losing one’s job in the next 12 months grew to 14.5% from 13.8%, while the mean probability of leaving one’s job voluntarily in the next 12 months rose to 21.4% from 21.1%.
The probability of finding a job, if one lost his/her current job, climbed to 59.2% from 58.8%.
Median one-year ahead home prices are expected to grow 3.0%, unchanged from last month, following six months of drops.
Median household income growth expectations slipped to 2.8% from 2.9%, while spending growth expectations fell to 3.0% from 3.5%. “Spending growth expectations can be volatile and exhibit seasonality, but they stabilized in 2017 and 2018 after declining from annual averages of 4.7%, 3.7%, and 3.5% in 2014, 2015, and 2016, respectively,” the Fed said.