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Rise in Utah Consumer Attitude Slowing as Possible Peak Approaches

Cisero Group
Utah's CAI holding at high levels for June 2015.

The rapid rise in Utah's Consumer Attitude Index for June slowed a bit from last month only because it’s nearly as high as it can go.

“Once you hit that 110 number, you typically do flatten out,” says Randy Shumway, an economic advisor for Zions Bank. He’s also the CEO of the Cicero Group which does the CAI survey for Zions. The number for June was actually 111.8. That’s up just 0.4 points from May. Shumway says any amount higher than 110 shows Utahns feel the economy is running strong.

“We’re very fortunate that finally the U.S. economy,” says Shumway, “in terms of consumer confidence, has grown above the hundred point mark.”

Shumay says last year the oil boom had North Dakota as the fastest growing economy in the United States but now Utah has that spot and North Dakota isn’t even in the top 10.

“And the fact that we’re as diversified as we are and yet growing as quickly as we are, really bodes well for the state of Utah,” Shumway says.

Utah ranks 4th in economic diversity according to Shumway.  He says inflation in the state and nation remains flat but he says the majority of Utahns believe home and gas prices will rise according to the Cicero Group survey.

Bob Nelson is a graduate of the University of Utah with a BA in mass communications. He began his radio career at KUER in 1978 when it was still in Kingsbury Hall. That’s also where he met his wife, Maria Shilaos, in 1981. Bob left KUER for commercial radio where he worked for 25 years, and he is thrilled to be back at KUER. Bob and his family are part of an explorer group, fondly known as The Hordes and Masses, which has been seeking out ghost towns and little-known places in Utah for more than twenty years.
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