If This Survey Is Accurate, Then Consumers Are Totally Not Feeling The Impact Of Higher Taxes

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Are higher taxes (in the form of the expiration of the Payroll Tax Holiday) hurting the consumer?

It's one of the most important questions in the economy.

A new survey from Discover — its US Spending Monitor for February — suggests that consumer activity and outlook continues to improve.

Here's the release/data we got via email.

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Economic Outlook

• The number of respondents rating the economy as good or excellent increased 4 percentage points to 19 percent in February.
• Respondents ages 18 to 39 rating the economy as excellent or good had the largest increase of any age group, with a 9-percentage point jump to 22 percent.
• Respondents ages 40 to 64 with the same rating remained at 16 percent, and those 65 and older increased 1 point to 18 percent.
• Respondents who expect the U.S. economy to improve increased 1 point to 32 percent.
• Those who expect the economy to stay the same also increased 1 point, to 17 percent.
• Consumers expecting the economy to get worse declined 2 points to 47 percent.

Personal Finances

• Consumer outlook on personal finances improved in February, as the number of consumers who rate their finances as excellent or good increased 2 points to 37 percent.
• Those that expect their finances to get better also increased 2 percentage points, to 25 percent.
• The number of consumers expecting their personal finances to get worse decreased 1 point to 47 percent.
• Of the 47 percent of respondents who anticipate having money left after paying bills this month, 66 percent anticipate having the same amount of money left over as last month, a 7-point increase.
• Respondents who plan to save the same amount next month increased 1 percentage point to 48 percent.

Spending Intentions

• Consumer spending intentions also held steady in February. The number of respondents planning to spend the same amount of money next month increased 4 percentage points next month increased 1 percentage point to 52 percent.
• Likewise, those planning to spend less next month declined to 18 percent, a change of 5 percentage points.
• When looking at individual categories of spending, the number of consumers planning to spend the same next month increased.
• Those planning to spend the same on discretionary personal purchases increased 2 percentage points to 41 percent.
• Consumers planning to spend the same on household improvements increased 3 percentage points to 35 percent.
• Spending the same on major personal purchases remained the same at 37 percent; however, there was 2 percentage point decline in those planning to spend more next month, to 11 percent.