A gauge of current conditions surged to the highest since March 2020. The measure of expectations rose to a six-month high. Consumers expected the inflation rate to average 5.2% in the next 12 months, the lowest level since March 2020.

“January’s increase in consumer confidence likely reflected slower inflation, anticipation of lower interest rates ahead and generally favorable employment conditions as companies continue to hoard labor,” Dana Peterson, chief economist at the Conference Board, said in a statement.

The third-straight monthly increase in confidence suggests at least some of the momentum in household spending late last year will endure. Resilient demand, accompanied by a healthy job market and improved inflation expectations, has the potential of keeping the economy on its expansion path.

The confidence data, however, showed buying plans eased. The shares of consumers expecting to buy cars, homes and major appliances all slipping from a month earlier.

Whirlpool Corp. projected sales this year will be weaker than Wall Street expectations, renewing concerns that shoppers will pull back from big-ticket purchases. Results issued Monday for the owner of the Maytag and KitchenAid brands also indicate a sluggish housing market.

“We continue to see an environment where the discretionary part of our business is under pressure,” Jim Peters, Whirlpool’s chief financial officer, said in an interview. “That’s typically when homeowners buy an existing home and they come in and replace the appliances — they make the decision to upgrade.”

Read More: Whirlpool Warns of Softness on Weak Existing-Home Sales

Views of the job market improved from December. The share of consumers who said jobs were currently plentiful increased to a third month, to the highest since April The difference between those saying jobs are plentiful versus hard to get — a metric closely followed by economists to gauge labor-market strength — also improved.

Separate figures out Tuesday showed job openings increased in December to a three-month high. Vacancies increased to 9.03 million, exceeding all projections in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

Read More: Job Openings Rebound Above 9 Million, Highest in Three Months

Expectations that interest rates will rise in the year ahead fell to the lowest since August 2020. Consumers expecting stock prices to be higher in the year ahead fell slightly after surging in December but remained near a three-year high, the Conference Board said.