American consumers are becoming more price-sensitive again

the state of the economy, Americans are surprisingly gloomy. More than half say they are experiencing financial hardship; more than a third say they are having difficulty paying for regular household expenses. Yet, even as surveys suggest that Americans are tightening their belts amid persistently high inflation, data show that they continue to spend at a healthy clip. Last month the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that consumer spending is growing by 1.8% year on year after adjusting for inflation—not far from its historic average. A report by the Bank of America Institute, a think-tank, finds that consumer payments are growing at double digits, a sign that the American shopper “is still spending”. This resilience can be explained in part by mattress-loads of savings. Americans accumulated more than $2trn in excess savings during the pandemic, when the federal government doled out unemployment benefits and stimulus cheques even as households cut back on travel, entertainment and eating out. Although some of this has been spent, households are still sitting on a $1.4trn cushion, reckons Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics, a consultancy. The labour market is healthy, too. Unemployment has fallen to 3.5%, the lowest it has been in 50 years. In August there were 10.1m job openings, or 1.7 vacancies for every jobless person.