Gain on Personal Finances Tug Confidence to 2009 High

Feb. 24, 2009 — -- Consumer confidence inched – barely – to its best of the year this week, boosted by improved ratings of personal finances. But it's by no means out of troubled territory.

The ABC News Consumer Comfort Index stands at -48 on its scale of +100 to -100, up 5 points in two weeks, moving slowly off the mat since hitting its record low, -54, Jan. 25. Although still mired near its worst, the CCI's gain is its biggest since September, lifting it to its best in two months.

Click here for PDF of analysis with data table.

The boost is fueled primarily by slightly better views of personal finances: Forty-nine percent say theirs are in good shape, up 5 points in two weeks – matching their largest two-week increase since December 2007. Nonetheless, majorities have rated their own finances negatively for 31 weeks straight, surpassed only by a 40-week run in 1992-93.

The slight reprieve comes as Barack Obama addresses a joint session of Congress tonight to detail his economic plans and seek to reassure the public on the country's future.

There's been little in the way of good economic news for months. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke today reported "severe contraction" in the nation's economy, attributed largely to the housing market's collapse. The Case-Shiller Home Price Index for 2008, reported today, shows a record 18.2 percent decline in home prices nationally.

And in a separate ABC News/Washington Post poll released yesterday, 56 percent said the economy is in a serious long-term decline, rather than a normal cyclical downturn.

INDEX – The 49 percent who rate their personal finances positively is the most since late October – up 8 points since bottoming out at 41 percent Jan. 25 (the best such gain since September 2007). Despite the improvement, positive ratings of personal finances are still 8 points off their long-term average in weekly polls since late 1985.

For the second straight week, only 5 percent rate the economy positively – a point off the record low set two weeks ago, 34 points below the long-term average and 10 points off last year's average, itself the second lowest annual mark on record.