Gallup index: Economic confidence lowest since Trump elected

March 28 (UPI) -- Gallup's U.S. Economic Confidence Index has reached the lowest level since Donald Trump was elected president in November.

The index remains in positive territory at +5 for the one-week period ending Sunday, according to the index. The previous week the index was +11.

The score was at 0 before Trump was elected and was as low as -13 early last year when Barack Obama was president.

Last week was a bad week on Wall Street and in Washington for Republicans.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average recorded its worst week since September -- losing 250 points -- and congressional Republicans on Friday failed to vote on legislation that would repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

But Gallup in a release wrote: "Confidence waned prior to the effort to replace the ACA dying in Congress on Friday. This suggests that the broader GOP infighting earlier in the week, rather than the decision to pull the bill itself, may have been a factor, in addition to the market's poor performance.

The Index is the average of how Americans rate current economic conditions and whether they feel the economy is improving or getting worse. The maximum score is +100 and the minimum is -100.

Americans' assessment of current conditions most recently is +10 and economic outlook is -1.

The previous score was +17, meaning Americans' assessment of economic conditions just saw the largest drop since the federal government shutdown in October of 2013. The current +10 score is derived from 32 percent of Americans rating the economy "excellent" or "good," and 22 percent rating it "poor."

The economic outlook component, which fell five points, sent the number into the negative territory for the first time since the election. The current -1 score is a combination of 46 percent of Americans saying the economy is "getting better" and 47 percent saying it is "getting worse."

The confidence score among Republicans fell to +42 from +52. Independents' score turned negative to -1 from +6 the previous week. Democrats' confidence is -20.

Results are based on telephone interviews conducted March 20-26 with a random sample of 3,547 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The margin of error is 2 percentage points.