Consumer spending ticked up by 0.2 percent in May, the slowest monthly increase of the year, but American are largely financing their purchases with excess savings built up during the pandemic according to new government data from the Bureau of Economic Advisors. Adjusted for inflation however, spending was down 0.4% from April. Personal consumption expenditures, one of the inflation gauges used by the Federal Reserve was up 6.3% in May compared to a year ago. Similarly, consumer sentiment levels last month also fell – by more than 8 points to 50, the lowest reading ever recorded since the survey began in 1952! In the Survey of Consumers for June from the University of Michigan, 80% of consumers expect rough business conditions in the coming year while almost half of the respondents (47%) blame inflation for eroding their standard of living.