Consumer Spending Update: Economic Confidence Declines for Third Month in a Row
The Rasmussen Reports Economic Index dropped by nearly four points this month, the third consecutive monthly decline since Joe Biden was elected President. The index fell to 97.8 from 111.5 in January, Consumer Spending Update: Economic Confidence Continues Post-Election Decline continuing the decline from 126.4 just before Election Day.
Enthusiasm about the economy started to grow immediately following Donald Trump’s election as president in November 2016 and had jumped to 147.8 by January 2020. Then it began its steep decline last February as the coronavirus lockdown threw Americans out of work and closed many businesses. Enthusiasm started working its way up again last summer and fall, but has dropped nearly 30 points in the past three months. By comparison, in President Obama’s final years in office, this index reached a high of 121.5 in January 2015 and was at 108.1 his last month in the White House.
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The survey of 1,500 American Adults was conducted February 1-2, 2020 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 2.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
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