Britain v Germany: how we rate our own economies

One in seven Britons (14%) believe the economy is in good shape compared to 68% of Germans according to new research released today by Ipsos. The Ipsos Global Advisor poll of 24 countries leaves Britain just ahead of Japan (11%), France (6%), Italy (6%) Hungary (4%) and Spain (4%) in the international league of economic gloom. The 14% of British adults that rate the economy as good is exactly the same as last month. Not only do they give a worried assessment of the present, Britons are also pessimistic the future. Just 9% expect the economy to be stronger in 6 months’ time. They are not alone here. Despite their confidence in the current state of the economy, just 14% of Germans believe it will become stronger over the next 6 months. With the presidential election in the USA looming, three in ten Americans (30%) expect their economy to be stronger in 6 months’ time – the highest level for more than 2 years.

Still looking to the future, the least optimistic of the 24 countries are the French; just 4% expect to see improvement in 6 months – and this is from that gloomy starting point of having just 6% feeling the French economy is in good shape.

Deputy Chief Executive of Ipsos, Simon Atkinson, said:

“Britons are resolute in their despondency. It looks like we’re going to end 2012 where we started – with gloom about where we are now, and pessimism about where we are going. And the fact that many of our European trading partners are feeling even worse should probably make us more worried, rather than less.”

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 18,680 adults 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, Indonesia, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden and Turkey, where each have a sample approximately 500+. The survey was conducted between 4th and 18th September, 2012. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics and ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to the most recent country Census data, and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. A survey with an unweighted probability sample of this size and a 100% response rate would have an estimated margin of error of +/-3.1 percentage points for a sample of 1,000 and an estimated margin of error of +/- 4.5 percentage points 19 times out of 20 per country of what the results would have been had the entire population of adults in that country had been polled. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.