NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Consumer confidence treaded water last week, leveling off after a four-point slide since mid-June but still on pace for its worst annual performance in a decade.

The ABC News/Money magazine Consumer Comfort Index, based on public views of current economic conditions, stands at -21 on its scale of positive-100 to negative-100, for a second consecutive week, well off its -9 average.

Twenty-eight percent of Americans rate the nation's economy as excellent or good, up modestly from 27 percent the previous week. Lingering pessimism about the economy, however, persists; 30 percent of respondents rated the economy as poor, the same as last week. The lowest level of confidence in this category was set at 7 percent in late 1991 and early 1992.

The number of respondents who say that their own finances are in good shape inched down 2 percentage points from the prior week's 54 percent to match this year's 52 percent low. But that is still well above the category's 42 percent low set in March 1993.

Yet the survey's buying gauge, which measures consumers' willingness to spend, rose to a new high for the year. Thirty-nine percent of Americans say its an excellent or good time to buy things that they want or need, up from 37 percent last week.

Consumers' expectations remain fairly weak. Thirty-seven percent of respondents say that the economy is getting worse while only 20 percent say that it is improving.

The ABC News/Money magazine Consumer Comfort Index represents a rolling average based on telephone interviews with a random sample of about 1,000 adults nationwide each month. This week's results are based on 1,001 interviews in the month ended July 20 and have an error margin of plus or minus three percentage points.