People will shop at Manhattan retailers in New York City on July 15th, 2025.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
The worst fears of inflation caused by consumer tariffs have setbacks, but they are still wary of upcoming price increases, according to a University of Michigan survey on Friday.
A university’s in-depth survey of consumers in July showed a slight increase in overall sentiment, up 1.8% from June to 61.8, along with Dow Jones’ consensus estimates, along the highest level since February. Questions about current conditions and future expectations also generated monthly profits.
Regarding inflation, the outlook for one and five years has fallen to its lowest level since February before President Donald Trump announced the “liberation date” on April 2nd.
The one-year forecast plunged to 4.4%, down from 5% in June and modest from 6.6% level in May. This has been my best reading since the second half of 1981.
“Both measurements are the lowest since February 2025, but remained in December 2024, indicating that consumers are still aware of the substantial risk of increased future inflation.”
In fact, the respective outlook for December was 2.8% and 3%, along with measurements throughout 2024, before Trump took office in January.
“Despite the risk of increasing consumer inflation in the coming months, consumers are fully hoping that tariff inflation is temporary and that conditions should improve by the time they enter 2026,” said Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial. “Inflation expectations are an important factor for the Fed, and according to this report, the trajectory is encouraging.”
Inflation peaked as Trump imposes 10% tariffs and so-called mutual obligations, and so-called mutual obligations that backed up his pending negotiations. However, recently he has announced tariffs on individual products such as copper, raising the illusion of future price increases.
Measurements are below the long-term average, with headline emotional indexes down 6.9% from a year ago and 16% since December. The current condition index was 6.5% higher, while reading readings fell 14.8%, while the current condition index was 6.5% higher.