The U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates again last week in an attempt to bring prices down amid high inflation rates.
Americans tend to say it's better for them personally if interest rates decrease (43%) rather than increase (16%), according to the latest Economist/YouGov poll. One-quarter (25%) of U.S. adults say it makes no difference to them, and 16% are unsure. Republicans (47%) are more likely than Independents (44%) and Democrats (38%) to say that lower interest rates would be better for them personally.
A majority of Americans expect higher interest rates in six months, with nearly one in five (18%) speculating that they will remain the same. Republicans (64%) are more likely to expect higher interest rates than are Independents (58%) and Democrats (47%).
Americans remain generally pessimistic about the state of the economy: 73% describe it as either poor (44%) or fair (28%) and just 22% think it is either in excellent or good shape. Most Democrats (55%) say that the economy is in poor or fair shape, but that pales in comparison to the shares of Independents (80%) and Republicans (85%) who say the same.
– Taylor Orth, Oana Dumitru, and Carl Bialik contributed to this article
This poll was conducted on September 24 - 27, 2022 among 1,500 U.S. adult citizens. Explore more on the methodology and data for this Economist/YouGov poll.
Image: Adobe Stock (Daenin)
