Confidence Sags Amid Gas Price Hardship

April 17, 2007 — -- Rising gas prices likely are keeping consumer confidence lower than it would be ordinarily: Two-thirds of Americans -- just shy of a record high -- are feeling the pinch at the pump, and confidence remains in the negative zone.

The ABC News/Washington Post Consumer Comfort Index stands at -5 this week on its scale of +100 to -100, little changed from its 2007 low of -7 last week and down from the +2 it touched in mid March.

No wonder: Gas rose an average 7 cents a gallon in the past week and is up 71 cents over the last 11 weeks, according to the federal Department of Energy's weekly survey.

Indeed, in a separate ABC News/Washington Post poll this week, 67 percent of Americans say gas prices are causing financial hardship in their households, up 10 points since May 2006 to the second highest in polls since early 2000.

Just over half of those experiencing financial hardship say it's "serious" hardship (totaling 36 percent of all adults). Naturally, more economically vulnerable groups are hit hardest -- eight in 10 of those with household incomes below $35,000 report hardship because of gas prices, compared with fewer than half of those in $75,000-plus households.

While gas prices have increased for the past 11 weeks, other indicators have been more favorable for the economy. Unemployment was just 4.4 percent in March, incomes have risen as employers bid for scarce workers, and the stock market is surging again.

INDEX -- The ABC/Post index is based on Americans' ratings of the national economy, the buying climate and their personal finances. This week 44 percent rate the economy positively -- about the same as the 2007 average, 45 percent, and compared to a long-term average, 40 percent in weekly polls since late 1985.

Sixty percent rate their personal finances positively, compared with a long-term average of 57 percent. (It hit 65 percent in mid November, the most since October 2001.) Thirty-nine percent call it a good time to buy things, a point off the average.