Q4 Trend Monitor: D.C. brinkmanship dings Massachusetts consumer confidence

Views of President Obama, Congress slide to new lows

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Below are highlights from The MassINC Polling Group’s quarterly poll, released today.

Bay State quarterly consumer confidence lowest since 2011

The Massachusetts Index of Consumer Sentiment dropped to 67.3, after the latest economic brinkmanship in Washington. The past two quarters readings mark a nearly 20-point drop-off from the 85.7 found in April 2013, but it was not as low as the 59.4 recorded in July 2011, during the last federal stand-off.

Both Congress, Obama see favorability ratings decline

Dysfunction in Washington has also driven Massachusetts residents’ opinion of President Obama and Congress to new lows. But while a majority (53 percent) still have a favorable opinion of the President, three times as many have an unfavorable than favorable opinion of Congress (61 percent versus 20 percent).

Mass. right direction, wrong track narrowing, but still positive

Despite their pessimism about politics and the economy nationally, more residents think that Massachusetts is moving in the right direction than off on the wrong track. However, the gap between those two figures has shrunk to 7 points, the narrowest margin since 2011.

About the Poll: The MassPulse Quarterly Poll is conducted quarterly among representative samples of approximately 500 Massachusetts residents age 18 and older.  The poll is conducted in English and Spanish among both cell phone and landline households.  This iteration of the survey was conducted from October 17-20 2013.  The margin of sampling error for this iteration is +/- 4.1 percent.