ANN ARBOR—Consumer spending will advance by nearly 3 percent during 2016, according to economist Richard Curtin, director of the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers.

Curtin presented his annual forecast of consumer spending at the annual U-M Economic Outlook Conference this week.

“Growth in consumer spending will be higher in 2015 and 2016 than in any prior year since 2006,” Curtin said. “Perhaps more importantly, by the end of 2016, the current expansion will have lasted seven-and-a-half years and will be the fourth-longest expansion during the past 150 years.”

Conducted by the U-M Institute for Social Research since 1946, the surveys monitor consumer attitudes and expectations. The data are available non-exclusively via Bloomberg.

More information:

• Full report (PDF): Consumer Optimism and Secular Stagnation
• Surveys of Consumers
• Institute for Social Research