Consumer Confidence Stabilizes

Aug. 22, 2006— -- Consumer confidence stabilized this week as gas prices posted their biggest one-week drop in nine months.

The ABC News/Washington Post Consumer Comfort Index is now at -14 on its scale of +100 to -100, compared with -15 last week. Confidence had fallen six points from mid-July to mid-August amid high pump prices and a weak job market.

The average price of a gallon of gasoline dropped 8 cents this week, to $2.92. Prices had been as high as $3.04 cents just two weeks ago, the second-highest nominal price on record.

INDEX -- The CCI is calculated according to the way Americans rate the national economy, the buying climate and their personal finances. Thirty-seven percent say the national economy is in good shape, compared with a long-term average of 40 percent. Thirty-three percent call it a good time to buy things; the average rating since December 1985 is 38 percent. Fifty-nine percent rate their own finances positively, compared with an average of 57 percent.

TREND -- The CCI has averaged -12 so far this year, compared with a long-term average of -9. It bottomed out this year at -19 in May, and peaked at -7 in March and April. It held between -9 and -11 throughout July, before taking a downturn in August.

Its all-time high was +38 in January 2000; its record low, -50 in February 1992.

GROUPS -- As usual, the index is higher in better-off groups. It's +42 among higher-income Americans while -69 among those with the lowest incomes, -2 among college graduates while -42 among those who haven't finished high school, -9 among whites but -47 among blacks and +4 among men while -30 among women.

The index continues to be best in the West, at +3, compared with -15 in the South, -17 in the Midwest and -26 in the Northeast. A partisan component to consumer confidence continues: The index is +18 among Republicans but -20 among Independents and -30 among Democrats.

Here's a closer look at the three components of the ABC/Post CCI:

NATIONAL ECONOMY -- Thirty-seven percent of Americans rate the economy as excellent or good; 36 percent rated is so last week. The highest percentage of Americans rating the economy as excellent or good was 80 percent on Jan. 16, 2000. The lowest was 7 percent in late 1991 and early 1992.