Consumers with middle and higher incomes and stock wealth exhibited particularly large drops in sentiment.

WASHINGTON, March 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. consumer sentiment dropped in March to its lowest level in three months due to the conflict with Iran, according to the consumer sentiment index released Friday by the University of Michigan.

"Consumer sentiment fell back 6 percent this month to its lowest level since December 2025," said Survey of Consumers Director Joanne Hsu.

The decline comes amid rising energy prices and a drop in the stock market.

"Given the jump in gas prices and the uncertainty created by the war, I'm actually surprised it didn't fall more," Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, told Xinhua.

"People both have less money to spend, because of high gas prices and rising prices in other areas, and are very worried about the future," Baker said.

Declines were seen across age groups and political affiliations.

Consumers with middle and higher incomes and stock wealth exhibited particularly large drops in sentiment, according to the widely watched report.

The short-run economic outlook dropped 14 percent, and year-ahead expected personal finances declined 10 percent.

Meanwhile, year-ahead inflation expectations rose from 3.4 percent in February to 3.8 percent this month, the largest one-month increase since April 2025, the survey found.

Some experts believe several factors are making consumers nervous.

"Consumers are apprehensive," Gary Clyde Hufbauer, a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told Xinhua. "For lots of reasons, they see hard times ahead. It will take a dose of really good news to shift the sentiment."