Nearly half of Americans (44 percent) across all income levels intend to spend less on holiday gifts in 2008 than they did last year, according to a telephone poll from Reuters, conducted Sept. 11-13 by Zogby International - writes MarketingCharts.

Despite these reductions, the Reuters/Zogby Index, which measures American confidence, has increased to 96.3, up from 91.9 in August, as it continues to rebound from an all-time low of 87.7 in March.

The economy remains the top issue for likely voters, and a vast majority give US economic policy a negative rating. In the political arena, job-approval ratings for Congress are up slightly, while President George W. Bush's approval ratings continue to decline.

Key economic findings:

• 50 percent of likely voters say the economy is the most important issue in deciding their vote in the November presidential election, up slightly from 48 percent in August.
• Far fewer likely voters listed issues other than the economy as most important, among them the threat of another attack on the United States (9 percent), healthcare (9 percent), the War in Iraq (7 percent), energy prices (6 percent), immigration (4 percent), the environment (3 percent), and other issues (10 percent).
• Likely voters give Republican John McCain a slight, 47 percent to 45 percent edge over Democrat Barack Obama as the candidate they believe can best manage the US economy.
• Dissatisfaction with US economic policy continues to increase, with 86 percent of likely voters who view the nation's economic policy as "fair" or "poor," a slight increase from 84 percent last month.
• The number of Americans who give their personal financial situation a "fair" or "poor" rating has decreased slightly to 48 percent, down from 52 percent in August.

Likely voters are slightly less pessimistic about the direction the country is headed this month, with 66 percent who believe the nation is headed on the wrong track, compared with 70 percent in August. While strong majorities of Democrats (86 percent) and political independents (76 percent) view the country as headed in the wrong direction, just 38 percent of Republicans feel the same.

Key political findings:

• Job approval ratings for Congress stand at 13 percent, rebounding slightly after hitting a record-low of 9 percent in August.
• The Democratically controlled Congress earns positive ratings from 18 percent of Democrats, up from 12 percent last month.
• Republican approval has also increased, to 10 percent from 8 percent in August.
• Congressional job-approval marks received a slight boost from political independents this month, increasing to 10 percent from 6 percent in August.
• President George W. Bush has experienced a slight decrease in his job approval ratings - 28 percent now give the President positive job approval marks, compared with 29 percent who rated his job performance as "excellent" or "good" in August.
• Positive job ratings for Bush from fellow Republicans have increased to 61 percent, up from 56 percent in August and 46 percent in July.
• Favorable ratings from Democrats have fallen to 4 percent, from 8 percent last month.
• Among political independents, 18 percent now give the President positive job marks, down from 22 percent who said the same in August.

About the Index: The Reuters/Zogby Index includes 10 poll questions that gauge perception of the state of the country and the economy. The telephone survey of 1,008 likely voters nationwide was conducted Sept. 11-13, 2008, and was completed as concerns escalated in the financial industry, including the bankruptcy of investment bank Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America.