The FINANCIAL — Americans’ confidence in the U.S. economy is holding steady, with the public evaluating the economy slightly negatively.
Gallup’s U.S. Economic Confidence Index averaged -12 for the week ending June 12 — the third week in a row that it has maintained this score — after slightly lower readings in late April through mid-May.
Index scores so far in 2016 have not been as high as their comparable readings in 2015, which yielded rare positive scores in the first few months of the year. From a broader perspective, Americans’ level of confidence in the national economy is up significantly from where it was after the Great Recession.
Gallup’s U.S. Economic Confidence Index is the average of two components: how Americans rate current economic conditions and whether they feel the economy is improving or getting worse. The index has a theoretical maximum of +100 if all Americans say the economy is doing well and improving, and a theoretical minimum of -100 if all Americans say the economy is doing poorly and getting worse.
For the week ending June 12, the current conditions score registered -6, consistent with the range of -1 to -9 readings on this component over the past year. This latest score is the result of 25% of U.S. adults rating the current economy as “excellent” or “good,” and 31% rating it as “poor.”
The latest economic outlook score of -18 showed continued improvement from readings in April and May and fell more in line with earlier scores over the past year. The current score is the result of 39% of U.S. adults saying the economy is “getting better” and 57% saying it is “getting worse.”
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