Townhall
Poll: Economic Confidence Sinks to Lowest Since 2011
by Sarah Jean Seman
Oct 05, 2013

Gallup's Economic Confidence Index dropped 14 points since the government shutdown, the lowest it has been since December 2011.

The poll acknowledged the spiral as part of a developing trend:

“Economic confidence had already been dropping prior to this week's official shutdown, with a slide to -19 for the month of September, compared with -13 in August. But a significantly sharper decline in confidence has been evident over the past three days just as the government partially closed down -- leading to the current -34 three-day average.”

Economists, however, are predicting increased growth between January and March. According to Bloomberg Businessweek:

“Goldman Sachs estimated that the shutdown would suppress the economy’s annualized growth rate by about 0.2 percentage points if it were to last one week and 0.4 percentage points if it lasted two weeks. But the worse the decline in the fourth quarter, the better the first quarter will look: Goldman predicts ‘a positive effect of the same magnitude in Q1 as federal spending returns to its non-shutdown level.’”

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