NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - While the White House continues to press its case that the economy is improving, a new poll shows the American public is getting more skeptical about their economic security.

According to results from an ABC News/Money Magazine poll late Tuesday, the ABC/Money Consumer Comfort Index stands at -10 on a scale of +100 to -100. Fewer than four Americans in 10 say the economy's in good shape, and fewer still, 24 percent, say it's improving.

While the -10 reading is down four points from a -6 two weeks ago, it's still hovering close to the 18-year average of -9. And the -10 reading is better than it was just two months ago, -20, not to mention its level in August 1992, a deeply negative -43.

The index rose in late June and early July – and three positive economic reports based on July data were released Tuesday: Consumer prices, down for the first time in eight months; factory output, up 0.4 percent after falling in June; and housing starts, up 8.3 percent.

Particularly in an election year, political partisanship strongly influences these views. Fifty-four percent of Republicans say the economy's getting better, while just eight percent say it's getting worse. Democrats for their part are three times more apt to say it's worsening than improving. Independents divide about evenly.

Taken as a whole, thirty-nine percent of Americans rate the nation's economy as excellent or good, unchanged from last week. The highest was 80 percent on Jan. 16, 2000. The lowest was seven percent in late 1991 and early 1992.

Fifty-seven percent rate their own finances as excellent or good; it was 58 percent last week. The best was 70 percent on Aug. 30, 1998, and matched in January 2000. The worst was 42 percent on March 14, 1993.

Thirty-nine percent say it's an excellent or good time to buy things, the same as last week. The best was 57 percent on Jan. 16, 2000. The worst was 20 percent in fall 1990.

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Those views are not necessarily awful for the president: Confidence is average, not bad. It was far weaker in the summer of 1992, when economic discontent pushed his father from office, and indeed remains better than it was in mid-June.

The ABC News/Money magazine Consumer Comfort Index represents a rolling average based on telephone interviews with 1,000 adults nationwide each month. This week's poll covers interviews made during the four weeks ended Aug. 15, and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.