In the last couple months, Americans' sour sentiment has grown a lot sunnier.

Why it matters: Since the pandemic, U.S. consumers have consistently reported depressed economic sentiment, despite that fact that America's economy has staged a better recovery from COVID than the rest of the world's rich nations have.

State of play: Starting two months ago, America's mood started heading back up.

A University of Michigan index that tracks consumer sentiment has surged more than 28% since November.

Americans are rapidly becoming much more upbeat about the economy.

Consumer sentiment leapt 13% in the first half of January from December, the University of Michigan said Friday. That came on the heels of a sharp rise in December, causing the index to surge a combined 29% from November, the biggest two-month increase since 1991. The pickup in sentiment was broad-based, spanning consumers of different age, income, education and geography.

Consumer sentiment jumped in January and expectations for inflation fell, a sign that consumers are feeling more comfortable with the economy.

The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index soared to 78.8 in January, well above forecast expectations of 70. That is a 21.4% change from this time last year. Sentiment is also at the highest level since July 2021, before the U.S. began grappling with too-high inflation.