The monthly IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index, a collaboration of Investor's Business Daily and TechnoMetrica, gauges how confident consumers, workers and investors are in the pace and direction of the U.S. economy. As with all of IBD/TIPP's proprietary monthly indexes, a reading above 50 signals optimism, below 50 pessimism.
XThe IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index is made up of three subindexes, including one for the respondent's outlook six months into the future, the respondent's personal financial outlook, and how the respondent views current federal policies. The goal each month is to give as accurate a reading of the current state of the economy as possible.
The average for the index over the past 17 years has been 49.5, or slightly pessimistic. The index high of 62.9 was reached in March of 2002, six months after the 9/11 attacks, as Americans rallied behind the U.S. response to the terrorist attacks and confidence grew that the post-9/11 economy would not go into recession as widely feared. The index bottomed in August 2011 at 35.8, as the economy struggled to emerge from the financial crisis and key initiatives to boost economic growth had yet to have an impact.
IBD/TIPP also produces the Presidential Leadership Index at the beginning of each month.
See the schedule of upcoming IBD/TIPP poll releases.
IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index: News & Analysis
IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index: Overall
The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index fell 4% in September to 55.7 from 58 in August. It was the first drop in the index in five months, coming off its second highest reading since January 2004. It also marks the 24th straight month that Economic Optimism Index has been over 50 — which signals overall optimism about the economy — a record run for this index. It is also well above its long-term average of 49.5. The index stood at 44.4 in December 2007, the month that the U.S. officially entered a recession.
Six-Month Economic Outlook
The Six-Month Outlook is a forward-looking gauge that looks at how consumers feel about the economy's prospects over the next half year. The index dropped 6.2% to 53.3 in August. The volatile gauge surged 11.4% in January, and then bounced up and down for several months. The reading for this index remains in optimistic territory and well above its long-term average of 46.5. This index stood at 32.1 in December 2007, the month the economy fell into recession.
Personal Financial Outlook
The gauge of how Americans feel about their own finances in the next six months dropped 3.8% to 62.6 in September, the first decline after four straight monthly gains. The index's all-time high of 65.3 was set in January 2004, when the Bush-era tax cuts began to kick in. It jumped this January as President Trump's tax cuts went into effect. The Personal Financial Outlook is the most consistently optimistic index in the IBD/TIPP data set. It remains above its long-term average of 57.2.
Federal Policies
A measure of Americans' confidence in government, the Federal Policies component dipped 1.5% in September to 51.3. It fell in 1.5% in August, too. But the two monthly declines were preceded by a 10% surge in July. The gauge, which stood at its second-highest level in nearly 12 years in August, remains well above its 17-year average of 44.9. This index briefly moved into optimistic territory in February 2017 for the first time in 10 years, and in March of this year returned to that feel-good zone. Intended to gauge how Americans view government policies put in place by the president, Congress, the courts and the Federal Reserve, the Federal Policies Index has consistently been the least optimistic of the three subindexes that make up the Economic Optimism Index.
RELATED:
IBD/TIPP Presidential Approval Index
IBD/TIPP Election 2016 Tracking Poll
Past Results
Media Contact
Terry Jones
Investor's Business Daily Commentary Editor
terry.jones@investors.com | 310.448.6377
Marisa Lam
GMK Communications
marisa@gmkcommunications.com | 650.232.7188
The post IBD/TIPP Poll: Economic Optimism Index appeared first on Investor's Business Daily.
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BusinessRss/~3/hx2MPwWDX70/
No comments:
Post a Comment