Ipsos Global @dvisor Wave 17
British economic pessimism is world class
Britons are among the most negative about the economy in the world according to the latest Economic Global Pulse from Ipsos’ Global @advisor, online research conducted in 24 countries.
One in seven (15%) Britons rate the economy as good and the same number (13%) are optimistic about the next six months piling on the bad economic news in a week where it was announced that inflation reached 4% - double the government’s target - and unemployment rose by 44,000 to almost 2.5 million. These announcements are likely to dent the optimism of the British public yet further.
Bobby Duffy, Managing Director at Ipsos, said:
“We in Britain are not the gloomiest but we’re certainly worried about the economic situation by global standards. With the cuts beginning to bite and fuel prices reaching record highs the public are wary of the next six months as well.”
The general economic mood has greatly improved in many countries since the low point of 2008. Citizens of Sweden, Germany, China Australia and Canada are far happier now with the current state of their economy than they were two years ago. However, that large rise has not been seen among Britons where just eight per cent described the economy as good in April 2009 and 13% do so now. This places Great Britain around the same level as France and Italy in rating the economy as good (both 11%) but higher than Japan, Spain and Hungary (6%, 4% and 3% respectively).
However, economic optimism for the next six months is low among European and G8 countries. Of the G8 countries, Canada and Germany are the most positive about the future – although only one in three (31% and 30% respectively) expect the economy to improve in the next six months. The French are the most pessimistic with just five per cent expecting improvements. Just over one in seven (13%) Britons are optimistic about the future of the economy.
Technical Note
These are the findings of the Global @dvisor Wave 17 (G@17), an Ipsos survey conducted between January 14 and January 24, 2011. The survey instrument is conducted monthly in 24 countries around the world via the Ipsos Online Panel system. The countries reporting herein are Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United States of America. For the results of the survey presented herein, an international sample of 18,829 adults aged 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, 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. 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.
