A week after the UK lost its cherished “AAA” rating, a new global poll released today by Ipsos MORI finds Britons feeling distinctly queasy about the country’s economic prospects.
Just 7% of Brits expect to see the economy improve over the next 6 months. This places Britain 23rd out of 24 countries covered in the survey. France – where 3% of its citizens are optimistic – is the only country to record a lower score.
The only glimmer of comfort for George Osborne is that the British public are slightly more positive about the current state of the UK’s economy than some other western publics are about theirs. This latest poll finds 13% describing the UK economy as “good”, which is unchanged since December. Britain is ranked 19th out of 24 on this measure, ahead of Japan (9%), Hungary (8%), France (5%), Italy (5%) and Spain (3%).
In AAA-rated Sweden, 73% say their economy is in “good” shape, and in Germany, which also boasts a AAA score, the figure is 65%.
The research took place in January of this year, just after the “fiscal cliff” episode in the United States. The poll finds that the recent improvement in the US has been halted somewhat; 29% of Americans now describe their economy as “good”, down 2 points on December’s figure.
Deputy Chief Exec at Ipsos MORI,
Simon Atkinson, said:
"The loss of the AAA rating has of course been a shock to the politicians. But it is unlikely to change the mood among the public - they downgraded their assessment of the economy some years ago. These figures, like some of our economic data, have flatlined. The public need inspiration from somewhere but, at the moment, they aren't seeing green shoots anywhere."
Technical note
Ipsos 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 18,007 adults age 18-64 in the US and Canada, and age 16-64 in all other countries, were interviewed between 4-18 January 2013. 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+.