SAN FRANCISCO–Consumers continue to feel confident about the economy.
The 2017 holiday season sales increased by 4.9% over last year according to reports from Mastercard. The increase in holiday spending is attributed mainly to lower level of money anxiety of consumers, according to the Money Anxiety Index.
The December Money Anxiety Index improved by 8.6 index points in 2017 all the way down to 50.9, which is the lowest level of financial anxiety in the past 47 years.
"Money is peoples' means of survival, "said Dr. Dan Geller author of Money Anxiety. “Therefore, people spend when safe and save when scared, which is why people are increasing their spending during this holiday season.”
The Money Anxiety Index, which measures the level of financial anxiety based on what people do with their money, was as high as 100.4 in the aftermath of the Great Recession, and has declined gradually to 50.9 in December of this year.
Historically, the Money Anxiety Index fluctuated from a high of 135.3 during the recession of the early 1980s, to a low of 38.7 in the mid-1960s, according to Geller.