POLL: Confidence Rests After Recent Slide

Dec. 11, 2007 — -- Consumer confidence paused this week, steadying after a fall to its lowest level in four years.

The ABC News/Washington Post Consumer Comfort Index stands at -23 on its scale of +100 to -100 after dropping nine points in four weeks to -24 last week, its lowest since spring 2003. The CCI has been in negative double digits for 18 straight weeks, matching its slump following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The break this week coincided with some slightly brighter economic news. The Labor Department reported positive job growth for November with low unemployment. And gas prices, though still high at $3 a gallon, dropped 6 cents this past week -- the biggest one-week drop since August.

Still, there's plenty to worry about with continued trouble in the housing and credit markets, and forecasts for higher home heating bills. In a separate ABC/Post poll this week, only 28 percent of Americans said the economy's in good shape, the fewest since early 2003.

INDEX – The ABC/Post CCI is composed of public ratings of the economy, personal finances and the buying climate -- and all are at or near their lows for the year. Just 30 percent said the economy is in good shape, the same as last week, matching the 2007 low and 10 points below both the long-term and annual averages.

Thirty-one percent call it a good time to buy things, down 5 points since early November and a point off of the year's low last week. Fifty-four percent rate their own finances positively, down 4 points in the past month and also a point away from the 2007 low, reached in late August.

TREND – At -23, the CCI is one point shy of its four-year low, reached last week. It's ending the year in much tougher shape than it started. The CCI averaged -2 in the first quarter of the year but has struggled since, averaging -9 in the second quarter (including a 12-point drop in May to June), -12 in the third quarter (with a record one-week drop of 9 points in August) and -18 since October. Before the breather this week, the index had dropped nine points over the previous four weeks.