72% of Republicans think the economy is getting better, but only 15% of Democrats agree
The latest Economist/YouGov Poll was conducted after the Stock Market’s precipitous drop last Friday, and some respondents completed the survey after Monday’s even greater drop. So the economic mood, particularly the feeling about the market, could have turned negative. But that happened only a little, and only in assessments of the market itself.
In the last few weeks about a third of the public has expected a continuing bull market, saying the market would be even higher in twelve months. The percentage had been rising in the last few months, but has now dropped back again.
Reponses to this question are affected by the state of the market, so market optimism may bounce back again quickly, especially after Tuesday’s partial recovery.
Americans agree with the President and others when it comes to the soundness of the economy, and confidence in the economy overall continues in a positive direction. 38% say the economy is getting better, the highest percentage saying this since the start of the Trump Administration and since the Economist/YouGov Poll started tracking this. Nearly three in four Republicans say the economy is getting better, as do more than a third of Independents. Democrats are more than twice as likely to say the economy is getting worse than that it is getting better. The partisan split in evaluating the economy is the reverse of that seen during the Obama Administration, when Democrats were more positive than Republicans.
Not only is assessment of the economy improving slowly, the evaluation of the state of the country has been doing the same. 35% now say the country is “headed on the right direction,” one of the highest percentages to say that in the last five years. It was higher only on the one-year anniversary of the President’s Inauguration.
And Mr. Trump continues to get higher evaluations of his handling of the economy than of his performance overall.
