Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/CHICAGO: Economic optimism is declining at the global level with only two in five people having the belief that their families will be better off in the future, revealed a regular global survey that also identified a rise in institutional distrust among low-income households.
The Edelman Trust Barometer, which for over two decades has surveyed the attitudes of thousands of people, found that some of the world’s top economies such as the United States, Britain, Germany and Japan had the highest level of economic pessimism.
Pandemic, inflation divided societies: survey
The survey also depicted how the pandemic and inflation have divided societies. Higher-income households in general were still found to have trusted institutions such as government, business, media and NGOs. But widespread alienation was noted among the low-income population.
“This has really shown the mass class divide again,” said Richard Edelman, the president and CEO of Edelman communications group which interviewed over 32,000 respondents in 28 countries from November 1-28 last year.
The World Health Organisation and others have noted a higher impact of the pandemic on the poor, while those belonging to low-income groups suffer most from costlier basic items.
Only 40% globally agreed with the statement “my family and I will be better off in five years” down from 50% a year earlier, with advanced economies most downbeat: the United States (36%), Britain (23%), Germany (15%) and Japan (9%).
Meanwhile, fast-growing economies saw much higher scores – although lower than last year – with only China showing an improvement with a one percent point rise to 65% despite the economic disruption caused by its now-relaxed “zero COVID” policies.
