Despite two years of higher-than-normal inflation and rising interest rates, U.S. consumer spending has remained remarkably resilient. That resilience has helped keep the economy from sliding into recession, despite the pessimistic forecasts that it would.

Because it's one of the largest banks in the U.S., Bank of America's (NYSE: BAC) metrics can provide investors with some valuable insights about consumer spending and the overall strength of consumers based on their ability to repay their debts. Here's what investors learned from the bank's first-quarter earnings call.

In December 2022, a Bloomberg survey of economists found 4 out of 5 respondents forecasting a U.S. recession in 2023 or 2024. So far, those forecasts have proven to be quite wrong, and a big reason why has been the persistent strength in consumer spending.

Continue reading

Source Fool.com