Consumers undaunted by high gas prices

Consumers undaunted by high gas prices
Michigan sentiment index rises and beats forecasts; long term inflation reading unchanged.
June 1 2007: 10:18 AM EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- U.S. consumer sentiment rose in May as consumers remained resilient despite record high gasoline prices, according to a poll published Friday.
The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers said its final May reading on consumer sentiment index rose to 88.3 from 87.1 at the end of April. The preliminary May reading, released in mid-May, was 88.7.
The median forecast on the overall sentiment reading among analysts polled by Reuters was 88.0.
The survey's gauge of current consumer conditions edged up to 105.1 in May from April's final reading of 104.6, while its final measure on consumer expectations was 77.6, a shade higher than 75.9 at the end of April.
"To be sure, lower income households complained that high gas prices had devastated their budgets, but even among those vulnerable consumers their complaints were less frequent than last May when the price of gas was 34 cents (a gallon) lower," Reuters/University of Michigan said in a statement.
The survey's one-year inflation index held steady from late April at 3.3 percent, and its five-year inflation index was unchanged at 3.1 percent.
The Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers, a monthly series of data on U.S. consumer sentiment, are produced by the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. From January 2007, Reuters has exclusive rights to distribute the data.
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