53% of Financially Strained Consumers Cut Nonessential Spending

Consumers are still spending, but many are doing it with less room for error. That’s the central finding from “ The Inflation Mirage: What Rising Spending Hides About Consumer Demand ,” the latest edition of the PYMNTS Consumer Expectations Index, a PYMNTS Intelligence series based on a June survey of 2,028 U.S. The report finds that headline spending growth can make consumer demand look stronger than it is.