Promise made, promise kept. That is the overwhelming feeling for Americans under President Donald Trump as they are more bullish on the U.S. economy and the stock market while being more hopeful about crushing inflation and borrowing costs than they have been in 10 years or more, a Gallup poll showed on Monday.
Overall Americans’ current outlook on the stock market is the most optimistic Gallup has recorded, while the percentages expecting interest rates, unemployment, and inflation to worsen are among the lowest.
Reuters reports some 53 percent of Americans predicted the U.S. economy will grow over the next six months, based on telephone interviews conducted in the first two weeks of January with about 1,000 adults, Gallup polling revealed. That’s more than in any of its polls since 2005.
All of the positive feelings are a fulfillment of Trump’s promise in 2023 to make the U.S. economy boom from his first day back in office.
Trump Pledges ‘Economic Boom’ Beginning ‘Instant’ He Wins Presidency https://t.co/vK332sC1k0
— Jason Miller (@JasonMiller) December 16, 2023
Some 61 percent of those polled also see stocks rising – the most since Gallup began asking the question in 2001. Reuters notes:
The positive economic outlook is largely in line with that of many economists and policymakers at the Federal Reserve, who raised interest rates in 2022 and 2023 to fight high inflation and began cutting them late last year as inflation improved and the labor market cooled.
Most Fed policymakers see the U.S. economy growing around 2.1% this year, slower than the 2.8% pace in 2024 but above its longer-term trend; they see inflation, which measured 2.6% in December by their preferred gauge, the 12-month change in the personal consumption expenditures price index, falling to 2.5% this year, and the unemployment rate, now 4.1%, rising to 4.3% by the end of this year.
But overall, says Gallup poll senior editor Jeffrey Jones as quoted by Reuters, optimism is on the upswing, driven in large part — but not solely — by high Republican expectations for economic prospects under a resurgent Republican president.
The latest poll results are based on a Jan. 2-15 survey, conducted shortly before Trump took returned to the White House.
Read a full breakdown of the Gallup poll results here
