WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Big business is minding its money. Heavy industry is stuck in a rut. And even the federal government has turned down the knob on the spending spigot.

Good thing consumers have a little more pep in their step: A steady pace of household spending is largely what’s keeping the U.S. economy stable despite a slowdown in growth all around the globe.

Wall Street will get another look at the mindset and spending habits of Americans this week via reports on consumer confidence and consumer spending. Each are expected to increase, supporting the view that the U.S. remains on a steady if uninspired growth path.

“It’s the same old story. We are getting growth but no acceleration,” said Steve Blitz, chief economist at ITG Investment Research.

Every week Blitz writes a report for clients on the U.S. outlook, but he says it’s getting harder and harder to come up with new angles given the economy’s well-worn path — a ho-hum 2% or so of annual growth.

Indeed, the government’s second of three estimates of first-quarter gross domestic product is expected to remain unchanged at 2.5%. The revised GDP report will be released Thursday.

Consumer comeback

Confidence is slowly returning to consumers after the end of several big political disputes in Washington that threatened to damage the economy. Higher stock prices, rising home values and a lower cost of gas appear to have offset the negative drag from an increase in income tax rates and lower federal spending.

The consumer confidence index, which comes out Tuesday, is forecast to rise to 72.5 in May and touch the highest level since last fall. Another index, consumer sentiment, has already hit a six-year high. An updated report on sentiment will be issued Friday.

“After a period of anxiety related to the fiscal cliff and unknown consequences of the budget sequester, consumer optimism has returned,” said Joseph Carson, director of global economic research at AllianceBernstein.

The sharp rebound in confidence comes as a bit of a surprise. The labor market is not producing as many jobs as it did a few months ago and higher taxes were expected to pinch consumers, whose after-tax wages are barely keeping ahead of inflation.

“The remarkable thing is we thought consumer spending might slow, but it’s holding up pretty well all things considering,” said Paul Edelstein, director of financial economics at IHS Global Insight.

What’s even odder is that most Americans think the economy is in poor shape even as they express greater confidence about their own situation. A new poll by CNN, for example, shows that 67% of Americans think the economy is “poor.”

In any case, higher confidence doesn’t always translate into faster consumer spending. Americans are still working down their debt and they’ll probably have to tuck more money away. The savings rate was just 2.7% in March, down from an average of 4% in 2012.

For April, economists polled by MarketWatch expect no change in consumer spending for the first time since last October.

Still, inflation-adjusted spending has held fairly steady over the past few years in the 1.5% to 2% range (see nearby chart). Consumers are by far the biggest source of U.S. growth and they continue to prop up the economy.

On the brighter side, incomes probably rose 0.2% for the second straight month. Although earnings are not rising very fast, a sharp decline in inflation and falling gas prices are giving Americans more bang for their buck.

Consumer spending and income data will be issued Friday.