Wellington, Aug 2 NZPA - The National Government has continued to ride the wave of popularity that saw it elected.

Prime Minister John Key led the popularity contest receiving 51 percent of the votes for preferred prime minister in a TV One News Colmar Brunton poll released tonight.

Labour leader Phil Goff was at just 7 percent, not far above former leader Helen Clark (3 percent).

As a party National received 56 percent, Labour 31, the Greens 7 and the Maori Party 3.

People were also more optimistic about the future of the economy.

Sixty percent believed it would get better in the next year, 18 percent said it would stay the same and 2 percent thought it would get worse.

The poll questioned 1000 people and had a margin of error of 3.1 percent.