Consumers’ Confidence in Economy Remains Flat

The latest data from Gallup shows that consumers’ confidence in the US economy stayed at an index reading of -27, where it has been for the past three weeks. The reading is significantly higher than the -39 index reading of early December and sharply higher than the low point of -54 of last August.

Gallup offers this overview:

Longer term, Americans’ economic confidence at the start of 2012 is not quite as upbeat as it was a year ago, but is comparable to confidence in January 2010 — at the start of President Obama’s second year in office — and in January 2008, prior to the global financial collapse. Confidence today is far better than in January 2009, when the country was still reeling from the Wall Street crisis and the government’s response to it.

At its current pace of improvement, Gallup’s confidence index could rise to positive numbers by April. That would give a significant lift to President Obama’s re-election campaign, something that his Republican opponents are likely to try to stall.