Europeans don't see any economic light ahead
Though the world’s attention has turned to London and the Olympic Games, bad economic news continue to emanate from the UK and Europe. Ipsos’s latest poll of 24 countries shows that just one in nine (11%) Europeans expect their local economy to be stronger in the next six months. This has fallen from 20% in April 2010. Meanwhile three in ten (28%) expect their economy to be weaker while six in ten (60%) expect it to be much the same as it is now. The survey, covering 9 European countries: Germany, France, Spain, Sweden, Great Britain, Belgium, Italy Hungary and Poland, reveals significant differences within Europe itself. Around one in ten Britons (9%) expect their local economy to be stronger in the next six months. The French and Hungarians are even more pessimistic than Britons with just 6% expecting improvement in their economy while the most optimistic Europeans are the Spanish with 18% expecting improvement. 15% of Poles and Swedes also expect improvement as do 14% of Germans.
The Americans are more optimistic with a quarter (24%) saying their economy will get stronger in the next six months.
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 18,713 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+. In this wave (G@33), 500+ individuals in Denmark also participated in the survey and 1000+ individuals in Kenya participated in a similar survey 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
