---
"title": "The countries most optimistic and pessimistic about their economic future"
"description": "When it comes to how their economics will fare in the next year, the public is remarkably upbeat in a handful of nations and particularly pessimistic in a number of others."
"date": "2014-09-09"
"authors":
  -
    "name": "Bruce Stokes"
    "job_title": "Former Director, Global Economic Attitudes"
    "link": "https://alpha.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/staff/bruce-stokes/"
"url": "https://alpha.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/short-reads/2014/09/09/the-countries-most-optimistic-and-pessimistic-about-their-economic-future/"
---

# The countries most optimistic and pessimistic about their economic future

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Six years after the onset of the Great Recession, amid an uneven global economic recovery, people around the world remain wary about their economic prospects. A median of 46% across 44 countries [surveyed in spring 2014](https://alpha.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/global/2014/09/09/global-public-downbeat-about-economy) by the Pew Research Center expect their economy to improve. An equal proportion say conditions will remain the same (26%) or worsen (20%).

The public is [upbeat in a handful of nations](https://alpha.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/global/2014/09/09/developing-countries-most-optimistic-about-economy) and particularly pessimistic in a number of others. These expectations are generally in line with economists’ predictions, but not always.

[![Which countries are most optimistic about their future?](https://alpha.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2014/09/FT_14.09.08_OptimistsPessimists.png){.alignright width=280}](https://alpha.pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/global/2014/09/09/global-public-downbeat-about-economy)

The Optimists Club: The countries with the rosiest views of the next year are those with emerging or developing economies. Eight-in-ten Chinese (80%) expect their economy to get better over the next 12 months, as do roughly three-quarters of Peruvians (77%) and Vietnamese (74%). Seven-in-ten or more Senegalese (73%), Nigerians (72%), Indians (71%) and Colombians (70%) are similarly upbeat. Notably, economic forecasters at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) [expect little improvement](http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2014/update/02/index.htm) in most of these economies over the next year. The striking exceptions are India, where the IMF foresees the economy accelerating from 5.4% in 2014 to 6.4% in 2015, confirming public expectations, and China, where public optimism is at odds with an IMF prediction that the economy will actually slow slightly, from 7.4% in 2014 to 7.1% in 2015.

**The Pessimists Club**: More than half of Greeks (53%) anticipate economic conditions worsening over the next 12 months, (another 26% expect the Greek economy to remain the same, which, in a nation where the economy shrank by [-3.9% in 2013](http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2014/01/pdf/text.pdf) is hardly a vote of confidence). In addition, 48% of the French expect their economy to deteriorate, as do 46% of Lebanese and 44% of Palestinians. Greek pessimists, however, may be pleasantly surprised: the IMF foresees the Greek economy improving from 0.6% growth in 2014 to 2.9% in 2015. Similarly, while less than half the Lebanese expect more hard times, the IMF forecasts Lebanon’s economy to accelerate from 1% growth in 2014 to 2.5% in 2015.

The U.S. public falls somewhere between these two groups, with Americans equally divided on the future of their economy: 35% expect it to improve, 33% assume it will remain about the same and 30% foresee it worsening.