Poll: New Hampshire consumer confidence slumps
(The Center Square) – New Hampshire consumer confidence is slipping, according to a newly released poll, amid concerns about politics and a rise in COVID-19 infections.
The latest Business and Industry Association report, conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, found that fewer than 30% of Granite Staters believed that businesses will experience good financial times over the next 12 months. That’s a decline from a previous survey in May which found about 40% were expecting good financial times this year.
Overall, optimism about the state’s economy has dropped on all political groups since the group’s previous survey, the poll found.
About 40% of New Hampshire independents expect good business conditions over the next year, while only 35% of Democrats anticipate good times, which is down from 54% in May.
Republicans were the most pessimistic among those polled, with only 20% saying they were expecting good economic times in coming years.
New Hampshire residents are also pessimistic about the national economy, according to the poll.
Only 13% of respondents said they believe that businesses across the country will see good economic times over the next year, which pollsters said was a record low level.
Meanwhile, only 5% of those who responded said they believed the U.S. economy will remain healthy over the next five years.
Views about the health of the nation’s economy were split largely along partisan lines. Only 1% of Republicans said they believe that the economy will be strong going forward while 12% of Democrats said they are optimistic about it.
David Juvet, the association’s interim president, said a decline in consumer confidence is “not surprising ” as the state and nation wrestle with a spike in COVID-19 cases.
“However, New Hampshire’s 2.9% unemployment rate, the third lowest in the nation, shows the strength of the Granite State’s economy,” he said.
The poll of about 970 New Hampshire residents was conducted between Aug. 19-23. It has a margin of error of 2.7%.
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