Americans’ economic confidence continued to drop last week, with Gallup’s Economic Confidence Index edging down to -20, its lowest weekly score since mid-December.
Americans’ economic confidence had recently stabilized after monthly climbs as it recovered from the damaging effects of the federal government shutdown in October. Since the beginning of the year, confidence had remained roughly stable, hovering around -17 and fluctuating by only a point or two each week. The recent drop to -20, though a mere three-point fall, is the largest drop so far in 2014.
The Gallup Economic Confidence Index is the average of two components: Americans’ views on current economic conditions in the U.S. and their perceptions of whether the economy is getting better or worse.