Washington, July 30 After the current financial meltdown, Americans have become slightly more optimistic about the economy, but continue to have negative perceptions of the current economic situation overall.

A new CBS News/New York Times poll finds that 82 percent of those surveyed say the economy is in fairly or very bad shape, just four percent blame President Obama, who has now been in office for slightly more than six months.

Instead, they blame the administration of his predecessor, George W. Bush (30 percent), Wall Street and financial institutions (29 percent), and Congress (12 percent).

Obama is seen as a better steward of the economy than Republicans in Congress. Asked who will make better decisions on the economy, a majority of those surveyed (56 percent) cited Obama.

Just one in four pointed to Congressional Republicans. Still, Republicans have gained some ground here: In April, 63 percent said Obama would make better decisions, The CBS News reports.

Overall, Obama's approval rating now stands at 58 percent. That's about where it stood two weeks ago, though it reflects a decline of five points from June and 10 points from April. His approval rating on foreign policy is 54 percent, while his approval rating on the economy stands at 51 percent.

Just 18 percent of Americans believe the economy is in at least fairly good shape, the poll suggests they have become slightly more optimistic than they were just two weeks ago.

The percentage who say the economy is "very bad" has fallen nine points to 35 percent, while the percentage who say it is "fairly good" has increased four points.

Americans continue to be far more optimistic about the situation in Iraq than the situation in Afghanistan. While 56 percent say things are going well for the US in Iraq (37 percent say things are going badly), just 33 percent say they are going well for the US in Afghanistan. Fifty-seven percent say things are going badly for the U.S. in Afghanistan. (ANI)