WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump’s approval rating has ticked up, according to two recent polls — an increase that could be due to rosier US economic data — but the Republican leader’s popularity still remains below that of his predecessors.

Trump’s rating moved up from 35 per cent to 42 per cent from February to March, according to CNN’s monthly opinion poll and another study jointly conducted by The Associated Press and the NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research.

The two polls have a margin of error of 3.7-4.2 percentage points.

Management of the world’s largest economy remains the strong point for the real estate mogul-turned-president — more Americans (48 per cent) now approve of how he is handling the economy than disapprove (45 per cent), according to the CNN poll.

The sweeping tax cuts adopted by Congress in December are also a high point for Trump: 46 per cent of Americans polled approve of the president’s fiscal policy, the AP-NORC study reveals.

On the negative side, Trump earns lower marks for his trade policy and an attitude towards Russia that is seen as “too easy,” the CNN poll says.

The apparent upward trend in Trump’s approval ratings does not however appear in Gallup’s weekly poll, where he has been stuck since last May under 40 per cent approval.

For comparison, after about 430 days in office, Barack Obama enjoyed a 49 per cent approval rating in March 2010, George W Bush was at 79 per cent (in the post-9/11 period) in March 2002 and Bill Clinton was at 51 per cent in March 1994.