(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - An overwhelming proportion of people in five European countries and the United States agree that their countries’ economies are in bad shape, according to a poll by Harris Interactive published in the Financial Times. More than 80 per cent of respondents in Britain, France, Italy, Spain and the U.S. say that the economy in their own nation has worsened in the past year. In Germany, 58 per cent of respondents feel the same way.

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. The crisis has spilled over into the global markets due to the rising price of oil. Industrialized economies in the Western world have been the hardest hit so far.

Last month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its official World Economic Outlook: "The global economy is in a tough spot, caught between sharply slowing demand in many advanced economies and rising inflation everywhere."

On Aug. 28, the Italian government enacted new bankruptcy legislation that relaxes anti-trust regulations and allows companies to take specific actions, such as selling shares and laying off employees. The bill was regarded as an effort to save troubled air carrier Alitalia. Last year, an auction to sell the state-owned airline ended with no buyer after seven months of bidding.

On Sept. 1, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi discussed the current state of affairs, saying, "The country will have an its important and efficient flag carrier, absolutely Italian, run by best manager on the market."

Polling Data

In the past year would you say that the economy in your country has become?

Source: Harris Interactive / Financial Times
Methodology: Online interviews with 6,134 adults in the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Britain, conducted from Jul. 30 to Aug. 12, 2008. No margin of error was provided.

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