NEW YORK -- More than 70 percent of Americans believe that the U.S. economy is worsening, according to poll results released by Gallup on Monday.

The poll showed 38 percent of respondents saying the economic situation was "only fair" and 45 percent saying it was "poor", while 72 percent of the respondents said they believed that the U.S. economy is getting worse.

When asked about the most important problem facing the U.S. society at present, 21 percent of the respondents think it is the government, 15 percent think it is inflation, and another 11 percent think it is immigration.

In addition, a poll released by NBC on the same day showed that 71 percent of the respondents believe that the United States is currently going on the wrong path.