U. S. consumer sentiment dropped to its lowest level in nearly a year, likely fueled by the government shutdown and one-time up-in-the-air debt limit dispute, according to a Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan survey. Falling from 77.5 in September to 73.2 in October, as RVBusiness informs MHProNews, the figure was lower than the 75 expected by economists. Survey director Richard Curtin said, “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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