What is Consumer Interest?
Consumer interest can have two definitions, which are distances apart in terms of meaning. In the first sense, consumer interest can be defined as those things in which the mass market, and average consumers (like most of us), are interested. This is a frequent usage of the term in economy reports on what people are buying. For instance a headline like “Consumer Interest in Mini-Vans Declines,” would suggest the public is less interested in purchasing mini-vans. The other way in which consumer interest is used is to define certain types of interest that consumers must pay when they take out specific types of loans. Generally consumer interest refers to the interest accrued on personal loans and on credit cards. It tends to exclude any type of interest that is tax deductible, like a home mortgage or a loan to start a business. An assessment of how much consumer interest is accrued in a given period can suggest many things about the economy. For instance, it can show if people are spendi
