The University of Michigan recorded a 10% year-on-year drop, and other data found sentiment hit a four-month low.

Oliver Vernon-Harcourt, head of retail at Deloitte, said: “As many grapple with an inflation hangover, consumers likely need more time to digest the volatility and uncertainty of the last few years.

Kena Betancur / Stringer / Getty Images Retail sales were higher in December, but they didn’t come in ahead of economist estimates, breaking a six month streak of U.S. consumers surprising ...

Executives are also shelling out on marketing and scooping up brand names to entice inflation-wary consumers.

The euro zone economy has been skirting recession for the past year, partly because consumers are choosing to save their cash and rebuild wealth lost to rapid inflation in the past three years.

the Digest has grown into the biggest monthly magazine in the world, with 25 million circulation. For all of those 42 years, the Wallaces maintained total, if benevolent control over the entire ...