Consumer sentiment in upstate New York rose 2.1 points to 74.1 in February, according to the latest monthly survey the Siena (College) Research Institute (SRI) released today.

Upstate’s overall-sentiment index of 74.1 is a combination of the current-sentiment and future-sentiment components. Upstate’s current-sentiment index of 83 rose 2.3 points from January, while the future-sentiment level increased 2 points to 68.4, according to the SRI data.

The upstate figure was 2.2 points below the statewide consumer-sentiment level of 76.3, which fell 1.2 points from January, SRI said.

New York’s consumer-sentiment index was 5.3 points lower than the February figure of 81.6 for the entire nation, which rose 0.4 points from January, as measured by the University of Michigan’s consumer-sentiment index.

 The nation’s numbers were “little changed” this month, and New York “slipped ever so slightly,” Doug Lonnstrom, professor of statistics and finance at Siena College and SRI founding director, said in the news release.

“Interestingly, our indices — overall, current and future — all are poised almost exactly on the absolute breakeven point at which optimism and pessimism balance. Collectively, we are either at a crossroads waiting to discover an economic revival or demise, or perhaps this is the new condition in which we get used to things being neither good nor bad but rather simply what we are used to,” Lonnstrom said.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com