Europeans “doubtful” about the true extent of global financial crisis

Tue Feb 17, 2009 09:42am GMT

BRUSSELS, Feb 17 (Reuters) More than half of all EU citizens (54%) are “doubtful” about the true extent of the global financial crisis, according to a Eurobarometer poll published today. Scepticism was highest among northern Europeans, with nearly two-thirds of Belgians (64%) and three-quarters of Swedes (76%) believing that the problems may have been exaggerated.

Approximately two respondents out of five (41%) thought that governments across Europe had not yet been fully open about the underlying causes of the crisis.

Dr. Reinout Bracke of Brussels think-tank, the Centre for European Renewal, says that the study tallies with his own research. ‘Europeans just aren’t sceptical of what they’re hearing about the particular crisis’, he told Reuters in a phone interview. ‘They’re now asking bigger questions about the whole system that allowed it to happen. Until governments can produce some more credible answers, this scepticism will likely continue’.
Eurobarometer polled 4,000 adults across twelve EU states between February 10 and February 14 2009.