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President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a ceremony at the COEX exhibition center in Seoul on Friday to mark the 57th Taxpayers' Day and to honor people with presidential citations for being exemplary taxpayers. (Yonhap) |
President Yoon Suk Yeol's approval rating has stayed over 40 percent for a third straight week on the back of strengthened efforts to handle economic and livelihood matters, a poll showed Monday.
In the poll of 2,006 adults conducted by Realmeter from Monday to Friday last week, the positive assessment of Yoon's performance rose 2.5 percentage points from a week earlier to 42.9 percent.
Yoon's disapproval rating fell 3.8 percentage points to 53.2 percent in the same period.
Realmeter said the gain could be attributable to the recent policy focus on tackling economic and livelihood issues in the wake of a public outcry over high interest rates and rising inflation and concerns over global economic headwinds.
The government announced a plan to freeze railroad, postal and other public utility fees in the first half of the year to help ease people's economic burdens and Yoon has pledged to run as the country's "No. 1 salesman" to boost exports.
"It appears that the approval rating has settled in the 40 percent range on a policy rally focused on the economy and livelihood matters," Bae Cheol-ho, a senior analyst at the pollster, said.
Bae said there is room for the figure to rise higher should the relationship between the presidential office and the ruling party normalize after a new party leader is selected in this week's national convention.
Yoon's People Power Party, which has been running under an emergency leadership system after former Chairman Lee Jun-seok was ousted, is set to pick a new leader at a national convention on Wednesday.
On the favorability rating of political parties, the PPP earned 44.3 percent, up 2.1 percentage points from the previous week, while support for the main opposition Democratic Party fell 3.2 percentage points to 40.7 percent.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level. (Yonhap)
