© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A woman carries shopping bags during the holiday season in New York City, U.S., December 21, 2022. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo
By Lucia Mutikani
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. consumer confidence rose in November after three straight monthly declines, with Americans planning big-ticket purchases like motor vehicles and houses over the next six months even as they continued to fret over higher prices and interest rates.
Despite the rebound in morale, which was driven by an improvement in expectations, about two-thirds of consumers surveyed this month still perceived a recession to be “somewhat” or “very likely” to happen over the next year, the survey from the Conference Board showed on Tuesday.
Most economists are, however, not forecasting a recession, but rather a period of very slow growth. Those expectations were strengthened by recent inflation-friendly data, including a moderation in job gains in October, that have led financial markets to believe that the Federal Reserve was probably done raising interest rates this cycle.
“Overall, this data supports the idea of slower growth at the moment but the prospect of continued growth into next…
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