Economic confidence increases one week before election

Economic confidence clocked in at one of the most positive scores of the year with just one week before the midterm elections, Gallup said Tuesday. 

Gallup said the economic confidence score last week was negative 10, in line with scores from the last three weeks and one of the most positive of the year. 

Before October, the index was between negative 21 and negative 13, the lowest score being in late August. Economic confidence, however, has increased this month and has remained around the negative 13 to negative 10 range. 

{mosads}Economic confidence has not been as high as negative 10 since August 2013, Gallup said.

The confidence index is the average of the public’s views of current economic conditions and whether they believe the economy will improve or worsen.

Nearly a quarter of people surveyed in the latest poll said, for instance, that the economic is “excellent” or “good,” but 31 percent said it’s “poor.” Forty-two percent of Americans also said the economy is “getting better” but more than half said it was “getting worse.”

Gallup notes the boost in economic confidence might be connected to dropping gas prices.

The poll surveyed 3,535 adults, Oct. 20-26, with a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point.