Sour views on economy keep Biden approval on issues down: poll

NEW YORK, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- With the midterm elections three months away, Americans maintain a sour view on the state of the economy and are pessimistic about its future course, with U.S. President Joe Biden's approval rating across a range of issue areas continuing to suffer, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll.

More than two-thirds (69 percent) of Americans think the nation's economy is getting worse -- the highest that measure has reached since 2008, when it was 82 percent in an ABC News/Washington Post poll. Currently, only 12 percent think the economy is getting better and 18 percent think it is essentially staying the same.

Americans' views of Biden's handling of the economic recovery remain overwhelmingly negative -- and are virtually unchanged from the same poll in early June, with only 37 percent of Americans approving of the job the president is doing and 62 percent disapproving in the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll.

The president's rating on inflation is even worse, with 29 percent of Americans saying they approve, while 69 percent disapprove. "This number is also unchanged since June," said ABC News in its report of the poll on Sunday.

The only area where Biden sees some improvement in this poll is on his handling of gas prices. Just over one in three Americans (34 percent) approve of the president's handling of gas prices -- up seven points since June, it added.