Pessimism persists over US economy

U.S. consumers remain more pessimistic about the economy than they did near the end of 2011, a research group said. The high point for the year for the Gallup Economic Confidence Index in weekly readings has been minus 16, which came in late May, Gallup said. The current reading of minus 28 was little changed from the previous week, as the index held near its low for the year, which was minus 29, a point reached in January and in late July. In the national survey, 13 percent of the respondents labeled the economy excellent or good, while 43 percent labeled it poor. That put the current conditions index at minus 30. That contrasts with 60 percent of respondents indicating the economy was getting worse, while 35 percent said it was improving, which puts the economic outlook index at minus 25. The survey results were taken from an Aug. 13-19 survey of 3,389 adults. Gallup said the results have a 95 percent change of having a sampling error of plus and minus 2 percentage points.