Polls & Research

Britons, Germans Mistrust Government on Economy

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Two-thirds of adults in Britain think their government is not capable of handling current economic woes, according to a poll by Harris Interactive published in the Financial Times. 68 per cent of British respondents say they are not confident at all in the current administration’s ability to deal with economic difficulties.

While 25 per cent of respondents in Spain express some level of confidence in their government to deal with financial woes, the number drops to 16 per cent in Italy, 13 per cent in France, seven per cent in both Germany and the United States, and five per cent in Britain.

Since last year, defaults on so-called subprime mortgages—credit given to high-risk borrowers—in the United States have caused volatility in domestic and financial markets and raised concerns that the U.S. economy could fall into a recession, affecting the global economy.

The British economy was also hit by a global financial crisis attached to high risk loans. Last year, the British Northern Rock bank—a prominent mortgage lender—was forced to seek emergency funding from the government. In March, the British housing market fell to its lowest point in 30 years.

British prime minister Gordon Brown reacted to findings of this particular survey, saying that the economy is currently his "sole focus" and claiming he would put "every effort of mine, every day that I wake up" to fix it.

Polling Data

How confident are you in your government’s ability to deal with the recent economic difficulties?

	BRI	FRA	ITA	ESP	GER	USA
Very confident	2%	3%	3%	5%	--	1%
Rather confident	3%	10%	13%	20%	7%	6%
Somewhat confident	27%	37%	41%	40%	41%	42%
Not confident at all	68%	50%	43%	36%	52%	51%

Source: Harris Interactive / Financial Times
Methodology: Online interviews with 6,434 adults in the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Britain, conducted from Mar. 27 to Apr. 8, 2008. No margin of error was provided.