SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — U.S. consumer confidence declined this month as persistent inflation and the highly-contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus dinged the optimism of Americans.

The Conference Board, a business research group, said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index — which takes into account consumers' assessment of current conditions and the their outlook for the future — fell to 113.8 in January, from 115.2 in December.

Even with the decline consumer confidence remains high in the U.S. despite surging prices for just about everything.

The Conference Board's present situation index, which measures consumers' assessment of current business and labor conditions, rose this month to 148.2 from 144.8 in December. The expectations index, based on consumers' six-month outlook for income, business and labor market conditions, fell in January to 90.8 from 95.4 last month.