ANN ARBOR. Confidence declined in the October 2013 survey as consumers became convinced that the Federal shutdown as well as other restrictions on government spending would slow the overall pace of economic growth over the next several months. Overall, the Sentiment Index fell to its lowest level since the fiscal cliff crisis in late 2012, and the Expectations Index is now at its lowest level since late 2011. Perhaps the most significant finding is that consumers have increasingly moved toward the view that the government has become the primary obstacle to more robust economic growth. When asked to describe in their own words what they had heard about recent economic developments, the number of consumers that negatively mentioned the federal government in October was the highest in the more than half-century history of the surveys.

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