(CNSNews.com) – Americans’ confidence in the U.S. economy reached a nine-year high in January.
Gallup’s U.S. Economic Confidence Index averaged +11 in January, the highest monthly average in Gallup’s nine-year trend, the pollster reported on Tuesday.
In fact, Gallup said some of the three-day averages in January “marked new highs in Gallup’s tracking,” which began in 2008.
The index peaked at +19 for the Jan. 21-23 three-day average after President Donald Trump’s inauguration and shortly before the Dow Jones industrial average hit a new high.
Since then, Gallup notes, the three-day averages have dropped to smaller single-digit scores, including a +8 average for Feb. 3-5.
According to Gallup, “January’s +11 score marks the third consecutive month the index has been in positive territory. This is a new feat for an index that has had mostly negative monthly measures since its inception, except for January and February 2015.”
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 were to say the economy is doing well and improving, for example.
Gallup said in January, 31 percent of Americans rated the economy as “excellent” or “good,” while 21 percent said it was “poor,” resulting in a current conditions score of +10 — marking the highest monthly reading for this component since 2008.
The economic outlook component also reached a new high score of +11 in January. This score was the result of 52 percent of Americans saying economic conditions in the country were “getting better,” while 41 percent said they were “getting worse.”
Republicans’ confidence in the economy started growing after the November election, while Democrats’ confidence has fallen each month since October.
Gallup said the economy must keep improving for the confidence level to remain at least as high as it was in January. And the pollster pointed to the “promising jobs report” released last Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as being the type of “strong footing Trump needs to maintain this elevated level of economic confidence.”
