Consumer sentiment in August ticked up 1.5% after four months of declines.

Americans’ expectations for the economy in both the short and long term are the highest they’ve been since April 2024, according to the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers for August, released Friday.

Consumers’ long-term expectations are 10% higher in August than they were in July. Sentiment is 36% above its all-time low in June 2022, when inflation spiked to 9.1%. Even so, almost half of all survey respondents (47%) said high prices were eroding their personal finances.

“Survey responses generally incorporate who, at the moment, consumers expect the next president will be,” Surveys of Consumers Chief Economist Joanne Hsu said in a statement. “Some consumers note that if their election expectations do not come to pass, their expected trajectory of the economy would be entirely different.”

While Democrats’ sentiment improved 10% in August, Republicans’ sentiment decreased by the same amount. The survey correlated the divergence to expectations about who will win the election.

In July, 51% of consumers said they expected former President Donald Trump to win the election in November compared with 37% who thought so for Biden. With Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee, 54% now expect Harris to win with 36% expecting Trump to be reelected.

Hsu noted that consumer expectations are subject to change in the months leading up to Election Day.