Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index registered a score of +2 in April, the first time it has been net positive since early March 2020, just before then-President Donald Trump declared a national emergency amid rising coronavirus infections. The U.S. entered a brief but severe recession as business activity slowed amid stay-at-home orders, with the index dropping to -32 in early April.
Americans’ economic evaluations improved in the ensuing months, staying just inside negative territory at -1 immediately after the presidential election. Confidence slumped again amid rising COVID-19 infections and deaths in the U.S., dropping back to -21 in January, before improving in each of the past three months, including a nine-point increase this month.
The latest results are based on an April 1-21 survey. Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index summarizes Americans’ ratings of current U.S. economic conditions and their belief in whether the economy is getting better or worse. It has a theoretical range of +100 — if all Americans thought current conditions were excellent or good and that the economy was improving, to -100 — if all Americans rated conditions as poor and said the economy was getting worse. Both index components are barely positive this month.
Read more at Gallup.
{Matzav.com}
