(Reuters) – U.S. shoppers’ moods brightened unexpectedly in early December with an outsized improve in sentiment amongst lower-income households lifting general sentiment from the bottom in a decade, a survey confirmed on Friday.

The College of Michigan’s carefully watched Shopper Sentiment Index rose to 70.4 this month from a ultimate November studying 67.4, which had been the bottom since November 2011. Economists polled by Reuters had been anticipating it to slide additional, with a median estimate of 67.1.

Readings of each present situations and future expectations additionally improved unexpectedly.

The rise in headline sentiment was powered totally by a 23.6% enchancment amongst households within the decrease one-third of the survey’s earnings distribution, the largest month-to-month improve for that group since 1980. This was pushed by expectations of enhancing incomes within the yr forward. Sentiment slipped additional for the center and higher thirds.

“Whereas it’s normally assumed that such excessive modifications signify an faulty end result as a consequence of small samples, in 1980 it was the households within the backside earnings third that originally signaled the tip of the primary a part of the double recession in 1980-82, with higher earnings households following in subsequent months,” survey Director Richard Curtin mentioned in a press release.