Cape Town - The issues of inflation, geopolitics and the energy crisis have gripped citizens, experts and governments in the past 18 months, global market research company Ipsos has found.
In the economy category, inflation remains the top global concern for the eighth month in a row with 42% noting it as a worry, up from 20% at the start of the year.
This is according to the results of Ipsos’s “What Worries the World” survey, which tracks public opinion on the most important social and political issues across 29 countries today, drawing on more than 10 years of data to place the latest scores in context.
Results came from 20 466 online interviews conducted between October 21 and November 4 among adults aged 18 to 74 in Canada, Israel, Malaysia, South Africa, Türkiye and the US, 20 to 74 in Indonesia and Thailand, and 16 to 74 in all other countries.
“Worry about rising prices has now more than doubled since the beginning of the year, when 20% considered it a problem.
This time last year only 18% picked inflation as a worry and eighteen months ago, in April 2021, that figure was just 10%. Eight countries have more than or equal to one in two people choosing inflation and this rises to over two-thirds in Argentina (68%).
Poland was top of our list last month but has experienced a ... drop and is now second at 65%,” Ipsos reported.
While inflation may now have peaked, its effects will continue rippling through the economy, affecting consumers in a cumulative manner for some time, said Ipsos chief executive Ben Page.
“As a result, even as the underlying economy may improve in the second half of 2023, consumer confidence may remain very low, with perceptions lagging behind falling inflation, making Western countries’ politics stormy. In 2021/22 consumers have consistently suffered from optimism bias in terms of how much inflation will affect their disposable income, and as a result the longer-than-expected duration of our current period of rising prices, and the transition to a permanently higher inflation world after the low inflation of 2008–2020 has the potential for more disruption,” said Page.
Meanwhile, also in the economy category, 49% of the public say they’re finding it quite or very difficult to manage financially, while 32% describe the current economic situation in their country as “good”.
In the environment category, 68% globally are concerned about the impacts that climate change is already having in their country, while top of the list in the society category 78% of respondents think people should be able to take refuge in other countries, including their own, to escape war/persecution.
In World Affairs, nuclear, biological, or chemical attacks are now seen as the biggest threat globally at 75%, overtaking cyberattacks.
The most trusted professions are doctors (59%), scientists (57%), and teachers (52%) while in the health category, 61% say their health-care system is overstretched.
Cape Times