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Global Views on Economy Turn Sharply Negative 

Public attitudes about the economy have become more bleak as the coronavirus outbreak continues to weigh globally.

Global Views on Economy Turn Sharply Negative 
Pedestrians use umbrellas while walking along a sidewalk in Wellington, New Zealand. (Photographer: Mark Coote/Bloomberg)

Public attitudes about the economy have become more bleak as the coronavirus outbreak continues to weigh globally, according to a Pew Research Center survey released Thursday.

Overall, a median of only 31% of adults across the surveyed nations assess their country’s current economic situation as good, while more then two-thirds say conditions are bad.

In Germany, while the majority continue to view the economy positively, the share that view it negatively has more than doubled from a year ago. Pessimism also has grown by more than 30 percentage points in Australia, Canada, the U.K., and the U.S.

Sweden saw the smallest increase in negative assessments of its economy this year. That country’s more novel approach toward the virus -- it kept its economy largely open -- continues to draw scrutiny as countries around the world again impose lockdowns amid new waves of infections.

Global Views on Economy Turn Sharply Negative 

U.S. pessimism is largely driven by perceptions related to how people think the country has handled the coronavirus outbreak, the survey found. Among Americans who say the U.S. has responded poorly to Covid-19, 87% say the economy is bad. Of those who think the country has done a good job with the outbreak, 50% view the economy negatively.

In the U.S., men and all Americans over 50 are more likely to be optimistic about the economy.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.