Easing belt-tightening
A new USA Yahoo/ Maru Public Opinion survey released today finds that more Americans (60%) tightened their belts and reduced spending in July versus June, with restaurant food, entertainment, clothing and footwear, and groceries bearing the brunt of the cutbacks.
Yet, what’s striking about these results is that Americans have eased their cutbacks in every category since last month—especially in gasoline/petrol (down a whopping 14 percentage points) as pump prices dropped and health and personal care products/services (down nine percentage points).