(Reuters) – U.S. consumer confidence rebounded unexpectedly from a decade-low in April, with the strong employment market raising the outlook for wage rise and a drop in gasoline prices from last month’s record high helping cap expectations of an additional acceleration in inflation. A survey was conducted on Thursday.

From a March reading of 59.4 (which was the lowest level since 2011, which was the final reading), University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index climbed to 65.7 this month. The preliminary reading was 65.7, which is higher than the 59.4 in March, which had been the lowest since 2011. According to a Reuters poll by economists, this helped break a string of three months of declines.

This was almost all due to a leap in expectations index from 54.3 at March’s final level to 64.1. The current situation assessment was not significantly changed.

The consumer estimates of the inflation rate for the following year were stable at 5.4%. This is the highest estimate since 1981. It signals that the consumers believe that inflation will fall from the four-decade high of 8.5% in March. They also estimated the inflation rate for five years to be 3.0%, for the third consecutive month.

Last month, the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 0.5% for the first time since 2018. Officials have indicated that they will continue to increase rate increases in order to curb inflation in the coming months.

According to Richard Curtin, Survey Director Richard Curtin stated in a statement that the improvement in expectations was due to a 29.4% increase in economic prospects for the next year and 17.2% rise in financial expectations.

Curtin explained that “a strong labor marketplace boosted wage expectancies among consumers under 45 to 5.3% — the largest anticipated gain in more than 30 years, since April 1990.”

He said that consumers expected a small change in gasoline prices over the next year, despite the prediction of the month before that they would increase by almost 50 cents per gallon.

AAA reported that gasoline prices fell more than 25c after reaching a record high of $4.33 early March.