The University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment rose this month to 96.1, following a final May reading of 90.7 and the highest level since January when it was at 98.1. The latest reading is also 16.5% higher than in June 2014, the biggest year-over-year gain since 2004 “Consumers voiced in the first half of 2015 the largest and most sustained increase in economic optimism since 2004,” said Surveys of Consumers Chief Economist Richard Curtin. “Just as important, that same record was set by households in the top third of the income distribution as well as by the middle third and those in the bottom third of the income distribution.”
