Americans’ ratings of the national economy dropped significantly this week amid the coronavirus Delta surge, though the loss was offset by brighter assessments of personal finances, keeping consumer sentiment overall on an even keel after its midsummer losses.

At 53.3 on its 0-100 scale, the Consumer Comfort Index matches its five-week high, essentially flat this week after with last week’s 1.7-point advance. Still, this only partially reverses a 5.4-point drop from mid-June to mid-July, the CCI’s biggest four-week decline since the onset of the pandemic.

The index is 3.6 points short of its pandemic peak six weeks ago and 9.7 points off its pre-pandemic level. That said, it’s up sharply from its pandemic low, 34.7 in May 2020.

Unusual crosscurrents are apparent this week, with diverging trajectories in views of the national economy compared with personal finances:

• With the Delta variant spreading, the CCI’s national economy subindex fell 2.1 points, its largest one-week decline since January. At 46.6, it’s 4.5 points off its pandemic high in mid-June and a wide 20.5 points below its level in March 2020, before its unprecedented pandemic plummet.
• At the same time, Americans’ ratings of their own finances are up 4.4 points in three weeks, including 2.1 points just this week, to a six-week high of 67.8. That nearly reverses a 6.0-point loss from mid-June to mid-July, the largest four-week drop since May 2020, when it bottomed out at 52.8.

The CCI’s third gauge, based on views of whether or not it’s a good time to buy things, is in its fifth week within a narrow 1.3-point band, steady since falling from its pandemic peak of 50.7 in mid-June. At 45.7, this subindex still is 7.6 points short of its pre-pandemic level, with little consistent trend since April.