In: Economics
Public attitudes about the economy have turned bleak in much of
the world as the coronavirus outbreak continues to affect daily
life, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted this
summer in 14 nations in Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific
region. Assessments of national economies have seen swift downturns
in many countries, and few see improvements anytime soon amid what
the International Monetary Fund calls a “crisis like no
other.”
Overall, a median of only 31% of adults across the surveyed nations
assesses their country’s current economic situation as good, while
68% say conditions are bad.
In 10 of the countries surveyed – including all of those surveyed
in North America and the Asia-Pacific region – majorities consider
the current economic situation worse.
In Europe, attitudes are mixed. Generally, Northern Europeans
surveyed have more positive assessments, with a majority of Danes,
Swedes, and Dutch rating their country’s economic condition
positively. Germans are split (51% good, 47% bad). In the rest of
the European countries surveyed – Belgium, the UK, France, Spain,
and Italy – large majorities rate economic conditions negatively.
Twelve of the 14 countries in the new survey were also surveyed in
2019, and in all 12, the share of adults who think their country’s
current economic situation is bad has risen by double digits.
The sharpest uptick in negative assessments has come in Canada,
where second-quarter losses in the gross domestic product were
estimated at 12%. The share of Canadians who say the country’s
current economic situation is bad has roughly doubled, from 27% in
2019 to 61% this year. Negative assessments have also grown by 30
percentage points in the UK, U.S., and Australia.
Sweden, which has not imposed strict shutdown measures during the
COVID-19 outbreak, saw the smallest increase in negative
assessments of the economy. But even there, GDP is expected to
contract by roughly 5% in 2020, and Swedes are 11 percentage points
more likely to think economic conditions in their country are poor
than in 2019.
In addition to the broadly negative assessments of current economic
conditions, few in the countries surveyed are hopeful things will
get better in the next year. A median of 35% thinks the economic
situation in their country will improve in the next 12 months,
while nearly half (46%) expect conditions to worsen and 19% think
nothing will change.
Majorities or pluralities in eight of the countries surveyed expect
their national economies to decline further. This includes people
in countries such as the UK, France, Italy, Japan, and South Korea.
By contrast, people in the U.S., Canada, and Germany are more
likely to say the economy will improve over the next 12 months than
to say it will worsen.
In many of the countries surveyed, those who say their country’s
current economy is in bad shape are more likely than those who say
the economy is doing well to believe that the economy will worsen
in the next 12 months. In South Korea, for example, 68% of those
who say the current economy is bad also say they expect it to get
worse in the coming year, compared with just 22% among those who
say the current economy is good.
In almost every country included in the survey, public perceptions
of whether the national economy is bad are related to assessments
of how the country has handled the coronavirus outbreak. Those who
view their country’s coronavirus response negatively are more
likely to describe their country’s current economic situation as
bad.
This is particularly apparent in the U.S. Among Americans who say
their country has responded poorly to COVID-19, 87% say the economy
is bad, compared with half among those who say the response went
well – a 37 percentage point difference. In Italy and Japan, this
difference is less stark.
In roughly half of the countries surveyed, a similar pattern exists
when it comes to assessments of the future economic situation. For
example, Belgians who negatively evaluate their country’s handling
of COVID-19 are 23 points more likely than compatriots who approve
of the government response to say their economy will worsen over
the next 12 months.
Only in Canada and Australia are people with lower incomes more
likely than those with higher incomes to rate the current economic
situation as bad.
In the U.S., Denmark, Spain, Australia, and Japan, men are more
likely than women to rate the state of the economy positively, and
in Germany, Sweden, Japan, and South Korea, men are also more
optimistic about the economy improving.
In the U.S., 82% of those ages 18 to 29 say the current economic
situation is bad, compared with 58% of those ages 50 and older.
Younger Americans are also less likely than their older
counterparts to expect improvements in the economic situation. In
the Netherlands and South Korea, the opposite is true: Older people
are more likely than younger people to say the current economic
situation is bad. Younger South Koreans are generally more
optimistic about a rebound than their older counterparts.
Please Re-write the information above on your owns words: