For northern Europeans, the economy is doing well, despite everything

The Covid-19 pandemic is unsurprisingly spreading a wind of pessimism across the planet.

68% of some 14,000 people questioned this summer by the American organization Pew Research in fourteen industrialized countries consider the economic situation in their country to be “bad”.

This negative sentiment is particularly prevalent in North America, Asia or Australia.

85% of Japanese people, for example, take a dim view of their country's economy.

In Europe, the landscape is more contrasted.

A difference in perception widely shares the continent, modeled on the relative extent of the devastation of the coronavirus.

Not surprisingly, Italians (90%), Spaniards (84%) and French (81%) are, in order, the most negative, followed by the British (79%) and Belgians (67%).

These are indeed the countries that will suffer the most severe recession this year, according to economists' forecasts.

Conversely, an optimistic front is emerging in Northern Europe.

The majority of the Dutch, the Swedes and the Danes consider the economic situation of their country to be “good”.

A feat while they do not escape the general recession, the extent of which will, it is true, less marked among them.

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Curiously, the inhabitants of these countries fear at the same time that the worst is to come and fear, like 60% of the Dutch, that the situation will deteriorate next year, when it is supposed to improve, as close to half of Spaniards think so.

In central Europe, the Germans consider the current situation to be 51% positive - a tribute to the Chancellor's energetic handling of the crisis.