Economic confidence increasing, Gallup finds

Americans are growing more confident in the ability of the economy to improve, data released Tuesday by Gallup reveals.

This is the fifth straight month of rising confidence. Public belief in the recovery collapsed last summer during the debt-ceiling debate.

In January, the Gallup Economic Confidence Index reached -27, on a scale where -100 is complete lack of confidence and 100 is complete confidence. This is the highest level of confidence since May.

“The percentage of Americans who say economic conditions are getting better has doubled since August, climbing to 36% in January. This is the most positive Americans have been on this metric since May, but still not quite as positive as they were in January of last year (41%),” Gallup said.

By contrast, in the early days of the recession in mid-2008, 87 percent of those surveyed thought the economy was getting better.

Gallup says that confidence could pick up steam since strong jobs figures came out last week.

“Still, economic news changes quickly, and job market momentum will need to continue if the improvement in Americans' economic confidence is to persist. Economic confidence still has a long way to go to get into positive territory."

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