News Release

October 10, 2022 (Salt Lake City) – Utah’s consumer sentiment fell from 66.0 in August to 63.9 in September, according to the Kem C. Gardner Institute’s Survey of Utah Consumers. A similar survey by The University of Michigan found sentiment essentially unchanged from August (58.2) to September (58.6) among Americans as a whole. While there is only a slight change in Utah consumer sentiment from August, just over a 2-percentage point decrease, the change in resident sentiment from one year ago is substantial—a drop in the index from 83.03 to 63.86.

“The change is Utah consumer sentiment from one year ago is substantial,” said Phil Dean, chief economist for the Gardner Institute. “Inflation, Putin’s war, higher interest rates, and stock market performance likely contributed to this decline over the past year.”

The Utah Consumer Sentiment Survey uses comparable questions to the University of Michigan’s Survey of Consumers. These questions measure residents’ views of present and future economic conditions. Both surveys include a random sample of consumers, including demographic questions to assess the representativeness of the sample.

The full results are now available online.