Asia has the world’s most optimistic countries
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CHART 1 • Asia has the world’s most optimistic countries
What happens when you ask a bunch of people whether they think their country is heading in the wrong direction? Well, typically, voters are a pessimistic bunch. But this chart is quite revealing. It shows quite significant differences between countries and regions.
For whatever reason, Asia seems to have a confidence premium. The top six countries in this chart are all in the Asia-Pacific region, except for Argentina. Moreover, several of these countries rank highly on the Ipsos economic situation measure.
This suggests that this is not simply about democracy, ideology, or the mood of the media. It is about whether people see material progress and administrative confidence in daily life.
Source: Visual Capitalist
Now look at France, Britain, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Belgium, Spain and Sweden. They all sit well below, or only near, the global average. These rich democracies appear to face a credibility problem. People are not only unhappy about individual leaders; they also doubt whether their country is heading in the overall right direction.
That is perhaps what we’re seeing right now: confidence (in Asia) versus fear (in Europe) among different regions of the world.
Paid subscribers get access to the other four charts: healthy low inflation versus deflation, cautious UK savers, corporate resilience language and the US measles resurgence. Together, they show the difference between feeling protected and maintaining the systems that provide protection.
