Americans are still dreading a recession and rising inflation due to Trump’s tariffs

Washington
CNN
 — 

Americans are still dreading a recession and rising inflation, even after President Donald Trump paused his massive tariff hike on dozens of countries.

Consumer sentiment plunged 8% in April from the prior month, to a final reading of 52.2, the University of Michigan said in its latest survey released Friday. That was a slightly smaller decline than a preliminary reading from earlier this month, which didn’t capture people’s reaction to Trump’s 90-day tariff delay announced on April 9.

Sentiment in April was the fourth-lowest level on records going back to 1952.

“While this month’s deterioration was particularly strong for middle-income families, expectations worsened for vast swaths of the population across age, education, income, and political affiliation,” Joanne Hsu, the survey’s director, said in a release. “Consumers perceived risks to multiple aspects of the economy, in large part due to ongoing uncertainty around trade policy and the potential for a resurgence of inflation looming ahead.”

Trump’s unpredictable trade war has weighed on Americans’ attitudes toward the economy over the past few months, and now the Federal Reserve and Wall Street are watching to see if that means consumers become more cautious with their spending, or even pull back entirely.

Consumer spending powers the vast majority of the US economy, so such a development would inherently mean weaker economic growth or even a recession.

This story is developing and will be updated.