Households across the rich world have never been so gloomy
They seem to be suffering from a covid-19 comedown
Last summer people felt good. Unemployment was falling, wages were growing, and everyone could eat indoors and travel again. Little surprise, then, that consumer confidence across the rich world was above its long-term average. This summer has been very different. People are astonishingly downbeat—more so even than during the global financial crisis of 2007-09 or the first lockdowns of 2020 (see chart).
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “The covid comedown”
Finance & economics September 24th 2022
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