PRINCETON, NJ -- With 20% of Americans saying the economy is "excellent" or "good," consumer confidence continues to run slightly higher than the trough it hit last week, but it remains substantially lower than in February, and lower still than in January.
Today's results are based on interviews conducted March 21-22 and March 24, with no interviews conducted Easter Sunday, March 23.
One month ago, in Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Feb. 22-24, 22% of Americans rated the economy excellent or good and 14% perceived it was "getting better" -- totaling 36% positive responses across the two questions. Today, only 19% of Americans say the economy is excellent or good and 11% say it is getting better, for a positive score of only 30%.
This 17% decline in Gallup's measure of consumer mood (from 36% to 30%) has been evident in Gallup Poll Daily economic tracking reports for the past three weeks, -- clearly foreshadowing the 16% decline in the March Conference Board index of consumer confidence out today (dropping from 76.4 in February to 64.5 in March). Gallup's continuous telephone tracking of consumer confidence over the last several days -- a period of time too recent to be covered in the Conference Board mail-in survey figures -- shows that, for the moment, confidence may have bottomed out. -- Lydia Saad
Survey Methods
Gallup is interviewing no fewer than 1,000 U.S. adults nationwide each day during 2008. The economic questions analyzed in this report are asked of a random half-sample of respondents. The results reported here are based on combined data from 1,554 interviews conducted March 21-22 and March 24, 2008. For results based on this sample, the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.
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