A great majority of citizens in the European Union's member states judge the current situation in their national economies as rather bad or very bad, and Croatians are even more pessimistic than the EU average, according to the findings of an autumn survey conducted by Eurobarometer.
As many as 59% of those polled in Croatia describe the economic situation in their country as "very bad" and 38% as "rather bad". A mere two percent find the economic situation to be "rather good" and not one respondent answered "very good" to the question "How would you judge the current situation in the national economy?".
In 27 EU members an average of 29% of the respondents judge the economic situation in their national economies as very bad, and 43% as rather bad. As many as 25% circled the answer "rather good".
However, this EU average conceals huge differences among each of the EU country. For instance, only two percent of German respondents circled "very bad" when judging the economic situation in their country, and 21% of Germans find the situation to be rather bad. On the other hand, as many as 82% of the Greeks judge the economic situation in their country as very bad and 17% as rather bad.
The findings of the survey, conducted from 3 to 18 November in the 27 EU members, in Croatia, five candidate countries and in Northern Cyprus, were presented on Thursday.
Croatians, 59%, are most concerned by inflation, and the second biggest reason for concern is unemployment (25%) and the economic situation (25%).
Every second Croatian fears that the economic situation will worsen in the next 12 months, as against 40% pessimists in the EU. Less than one third (30%) of the Croatians expect the same economic situation, and in the EU it is 39%. In Croatia, 16% of those polled believe in the improvement of the economy and in the EU 17%.
