For the first time since the recession, the U.S. Economic Confidence Index by Gallup has reached positive numbers, moving up seven points to reach an average score of +2 for the last full week of December.
Using a survey to determine how Americans feel about the how the economy is currently doing and whether people think it is getting better or worse. The highest potential score would be +100 if citizens felt that the economy was doing fantastic and had the potential to continue to sustain that growth. The lowest potential score would be -100 if citizens felt that the economy was doing badly and showed no signs of improvement.
Reaching the +2 score for the week ending on Dec. 28 was due to 28% of respondents saying that the economy is currently doing excellent or good and 27% said it is doing poor, creating a score of 0 for the current economic conditions.
For economic outlook, 49% of respondents said the economy is getting better and 45% said it is getting worse, resulting in a score of +4. The current economic conditions score and the economic outlook score combined created the total score of +2.
Having a positive score shows that Americans are currently viewing the economy in a positive way. Since Gallup began tracking consumers’ economic confidence in 2008, this is the first time that the average score has gotten out of the negatives.
After not changing much during the summer months, economic confidence started increasing during the middle of September. Gas prices started dropping around the same time, decreasing by almost 30% in past four months.
Other contributing factors include the American stock market reaching record highs in December while unemployment rates dropped to their lowest number since 2008.
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