{"id":1673219,"date":"2014-03-11T07:01:10","date_gmt":"2014-03-11T14:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/2014\/03\/11\/bad-weather-didnt-stifle-consumer-sentiment-in-february-survey-finds\/"},"modified":"2014-03-11T07:01:10","modified_gmt":"2014-03-11T14:01:10","slug":"bad-weather-didnt-stifle-consumer-sentiment-in-february-survey-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/2014\/03\/11\/bad-weather-didnt-stifle-consumer-sentiment-in-february-survey-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad weather didn&#8217;t stifle consumer sentiment in February, survey finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Although cold weather kept many shoppers indoors last month, consumer sentiment indexes continued their slow but steady rise, offering optimistic news&nbsp;for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/Solutions\" target=\"_self\" class=\"dnautolink\">retail industry<\/a>. The Thomson Reuters\/University of Michigan final <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sca.isr.umich.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">index of consumer sentiment<\/a> increased to 81.6 in February, up from 81.2 in January. The February result was slightly above analysts&#039; predictions.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;While the harsh winter weather has kept consumers away from retail outlets, it has not had a detrimental impact on their outlook for future economic conditions,&quot; said Richard Curtin, chief economist for the consumer sentiment survey. &quot;Consumers have displayed remarkable resiliency in the face of the polar vortex as well as higher utility bills and minimal employment gains.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Money News mentioned that shoppers&#039; growing&nbsp;optimism comes from their expectations to have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.moneynews.com\/economy\/consumer-sentiment-economy-weather\/2014\/02\/28\/id\/555337\" target=\"_blank\">higher incomes<\/a> over the next year, giving them more disposable income &#8211; even if they wait for the weather to warm up before hitting stores.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Consumer spending will continue <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/2014-02-28\/consumer-sentiment-in-u-s-increases-on-outlook-for-economy-1-.html\" target=\"_blank\">on the same pace<\/a> and grow modestly throughout the year,&quot; predicted&nbsp;Yelena Shulyatyeva, U.S. economist at BNP Paribas in New York, according to Bloomberg.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The economy still has a long way to go on its recovery, but these numbers offer hope that retail customer trends will continue to move in a positive direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although cold weather kept many shoppers indoors last month, consumer sentiment indexes continued their slow but steady rise, offering optimistic news for the retail industry. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/2014\/03\/11\/bad-weather-didnt-stifle-consumer-sentiment-in-february-survey-finds\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1673220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1673219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-retail-customer-business-intelligence"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1673219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1673219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1673219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1673220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1673219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1673219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.retailpro.com\/News\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1673219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}