Britain ends the year as one of the most economically pessimistic nations
Just one in ten Britons (9%) expect their local economy to improve in the next six months, half the level seen in America according to new research from Ipsos’ Global @dvisor online survey conducted in 24 countries.
Only the Hungarians (6%), Japanese (6%), Belgians (4%) and the French (2%) are more pessimistic about the future of their local economy. Even the Spanish are more optimistic than Britons (17%). By the far the most optimistic of the 24 countries are the Brazilians with 72% expecting improvement.
Britain also rates towards the bottom of the league “good” economies as assessed by their own citizens, with just one in ten (10%) describing the economy in Britain as good. This is compared with 73% of Swedes that describe their economy as good and 64% of Germans.
Managing Director, Ipsos, Bobby Duffy, said:
“With all the frenzied talk of a global meltdown it’s easy to miss that there are actually large parts of the world economy that are still feeling pretty confident about the future. And this is not just Brazil, India and China – the majority in many other countries like Canada, Australia and Saudi Arabia also feel their economy will improve in the next few months. Even within Europe, which does face real dangers in the coming months, there is a stark difference between high confidence countries (like Sweden and Germany) and low confidence countries (like the UK and France).
The UK ends the year much as it started - bumping along the bottom of the international confidence table. This adds to the picture of a gloomy 2012, as we know consumer confidence has a direct relationship with real economic outcomes.”
Technical note
Global @dvisor is a monthly online survey conducted by Ipsos via the Ipsos Online Panel system in 24 countries around the world.
For the results of the survey presented herein, an international sample of 18,682 age 18-64 in the US and Canada, and age 16-64 in all other countries, were interviewed. Approximately 1000+ individuals participated on a country by country basis via the Ipsos Online Panel with the exception of Argentina, Belgium, Greece, Indonesia, Ireland, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden and Turkey, where each have a sample approximately 500+.
Weighting was employed to balance demographics and ensure the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to the most recent country Census data available and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe, (in the small number of developing countries where access to the internet is limited respondents are more likely to be affluent and well connected than the average member of the population.)
