WASHINGTON, March 14 (UPI) -- The U.S. public's views of economic news have improved greatly since last summer, when many feared a new recession, a survey indicates.
But the national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press indicated sharply more negative views on gasoline prices.
The poll showed the proportion of the public reporting they are hearing mostly bad news about the economy fell from 67 percent last summer to 24 percent now. During the same period, the proportion saying economic news is a mix of good and bad has more than doubled, from 30 percent in August to 62 percent today.
The percentage hearing mostly good news is 11 percent, up from just 1 percent last August.
But news about gas prices is viewed much more negatively -- 85 percent say they are hearing mostly bad news about gas prices, up from 47 percent in November.
And just 10 percent describe the economy as excellent or good, 38 percent fair and 51 percent poor, little changed in months.
Pew said most of the analysis in its report was based on telephone interviews conducted March 7-11 among a national sample of 1,503 adults, 18 years of age or older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The survey was conducted by interviewers at Princeton Data Source under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International, Pew said.
The margin of error was 3 percentage points for the total sample, Pew said.
