Reuters/Ipsos poll: 73 pct believe US on wrong track

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Americans by a large majority believe the United States is on the wrong track and nearly half think the worst is yet to come in the economy, a Reuters/Ipsos poll said on Wednesday.

U.S. President Barack Obama's approval rating dropped to 45 per cent from 49 per cent a month ago, according to the poll conducted from last Thursday to Monday - a period that included a historic downgrade of America's credit rating, new recession fears and the start of a stock market sell-off.

The poll found that 73 per cent of Americans said the United States is on the 'wrong track', and just 21 per cent said the country is headed in the right direction.

This is the highest figure measured so far since Reuters/Ipsos began polling American public opinion in February 2009.

The survey of 1,055 adults found that 47 per cent of respondents said 'the worst is yet to come' in the U.S. economy, an increase of 13 percentage points from a year ago when this question was last raised. This is the highest measure since March 2009, when concern peaked at 57 per cent, at the height of the recession.

While Americans believe blame is shared among many in Washington, Republicans appear to be suffering most following the debt-limit deal reached last week after anguished negotiations between Obama and congressional leaders that displayed the deep divide between the two major U.S. political parties and an inability to compromise.

The survey found 42 per cent of Americans held a negative view of the loosely organised conservative Tea Party movement, closely tied to many Republican lawmakers, in the wake of the debt deal.

House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, was viewed negatively by 37 per cent of respondents in the poll.

The survey was performed just after Obama and the U.S. Congress concluded the deal that averted a government debt default but did not stop the U.S. credit rating from being downgraded by Standard & Poor's.

During the poll period, Americans were also digesting new data showing stubbornly high unemployment and pointing to renewed weakness in the economy, which sent U.S. stocks into a tailspin.