Consumer confidence improved in October after posting a sharp decline in September amid a runup in borrowing costs and deteriorating business outlooks.

The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index bumped up 7.5 points to 91.7. Brighter outlooks on present economic conditions led the monthly increase, though forward-looking sentiment also recovered slightly following three straight monthly declines.

“The recovery was in line with retail gasoline prices easing from September to October,” noted Fergus McCormick, senior economist at the nonprofit research and market intelligence firm, commenting in the report.

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“Yet, despite the increase in October,” added McCormick, “consumer confidence remained on the long-term downward trend that’s persisted over the past few years.”

Among spontaneous write-in responses from survey respondents, accelerating costs of living continued to dominate consumer concerns. That included broad references to prices as well as food and grocery costs and rising oil and diesel prices.

“Mentions of jobs and employment as an area of concern also ticked up, though to a lesser extent,” said McCormick. Write-in responses mentioning war and conflict declined for a second consecutive month “but remained elevated.”

A hotter-than-expected consumer price index showed another month of steady price increases in September, with both headline and core inflation measures beating forecast estimates. Monthly growth in the index was at its fastest pace since April.

Meanwhile, mortgage rates shot up last month as borrowing costs for long-term U.S. government debt surged. Typical 30-year rates that began September at 6.7% had surged to 7.4% by the second week of October, according to Freddie Mac data.

Survey responses for The Conference Board’s latest survey were fielded from Oct. 1-21.

Consumers still report expectations for elevated interest rates over the next year, but their average 12-month inflation expectations eased over the month to 5.8%. Consumer confidence nevertheless remained bifurcated across generational and income divides.

“On a six-month moving average basis, only consumers under age 35 and those with a household income of [$100,000] or more expressed an increase in confidence,” read The Conference Board’s report.