POLL SHOWS RUSSIANS CONFIDENT ABOUT PRESENT, LESS SO ABOUT FUTURE

A survey conducted by Allianz SE, the giant financial service provider with headquarters in Munich, found Russians fairly confident about their country’s present and future as well as their current personal situations, but they are less confident about their personal future. The “confidence study” was conducted in April and May of this year among more than 11,000 people aged 15 to 60 in 10 European countries: Austria, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, France, Croatia and Russia (www.allianz.com, June 2).

Only 17 percent of the respondents in Russia described the overall situation in the country as “rather bad/very bad,” with 59 percent describing it as “neither good nor bad” and 24 percent describing it as “very good/rather good.” That contrasted sharply with France, where 53 percent of the respondents described their country’s overall situation as “rather bad/very bad,” 32 percent as “neither good nor bad” and only 15 percent as “very good/rather good.” Gloomier still was Portugal, where 63 percent described the overall situation in their country as “rather bad/very bad,” 31 percent as “neither good nor bad” and a mere 6 percent as “very good/rather good.” The poll found that Austrians and Turks evaluate the current overall situation in their countries most positively and that Italians and Austrians are most confident about their countries’ future.

Russia had the smallest share of respondents who said that they were “rather concerned/very concerned” about the situation in their country over the next 12 months (29 percent). The next two countries with the lowest percentages of respondents “rather concerned/very concerned” about the situation in their country over the next 12 months were Austria (31 percent) and Germany (39 percent).

The poll also found the Russian respondents the least pessimistic, but not the most optimistic, about their current personal situation. Only 7 percent of the Russian respondents described their current personal situation as “rather bad/very bad,” slightly less than Austria (8 percent) and Spain (9 percent). On the other hand, only 43 percent of the Russian respondents described their current personal situation as “very good/rather good,” compared with 64 percent of the Austrians, 60 percent of the Greeks, 57 percent of the Germans, 55 percent of the Spaniards, 51 percent of the Turks, 45 percent of the Italians and 45 percent of the French. Half of the Russian respondents described their personal situation as “neither good nor bad,” the largest percentage of respondents to answer that way except for those in Portugal, where 53 percent described their personal situation as “neither good nor bad,” 26 percent as “very good/rather good” and 21 percent as “rather bad/very bad”).

On the other hand, only 38 percent of the Russians said they were confident about their personal situation in the next 12 months. The only respondents less confident about their personal future were those in Turkey and Portugal (34 percent and 28 percent, respectively, said they were “very confident/rather confident”). Still, only 25 percent of the Russian respondents said that they were “rather concerned/very concerned” about their personal situation in the next 12 months, compared with 47 percent of those in Portugal and 56 percent of those in Turkey. Russia had the highest share of respondents, 36 percent, who said that they were “neither confident nor concerned” about their personal situation in the next 12 months.

In terms of specific issues, 18 percent of the Russian respondents indicated that they were “very confident/rather confident” about the general economic situation in the next 12 months (compared with 8 percent in Portugal, 26 percent in Turkey and 35 percent in Austria). On the other hand, 27 percent of the Russian respondents said they were “very confident/rather confident” about the security of jobs in the next 12 months, compared with 16 percent in France, 19 percent in Germany, 12 percent in Portugal and 11 percent in Spain.

The Russian respondents were the most pessimistic about their ecological situation, with only 9 percent saying they were “very confident/rather confident” about conservation of the environment and climate protection in the next 12 months, compared with 13 percent in Spain (the second lowest) and 35 percent in Turkey (the highest).

The Russian respondents were also the most pessimistic about their pensions, with only 13 percent “very confident/rather confident” about being provided for in old age. The Portuguese respondents were the second most pessimistic in this area (16 percent), while the Austrians were the most optimistic (55 percent) (www.allianz.com, June 2). Yaroslav Lissovolik, co-head of equity research at Deutsche Bank, told RBK Daily that Russian fears about retirement as indicated in the poll represented an “objective assessment” about their pension system, given that they saw how Russian pensioners lived today and assume it would be the same for them. Likewise, Hannes Chopra, who heads ROSNO, a Russian insurance company that belongs to the Allianz group, said that while the Allianz “confidence study” showed that a “positive mood” prevailed in Russia, Russians were skeptical about their post-retirement future, given that their pensions equaled about a quarter of the salary of their last job, compared to as much as 65 percent in Germany and 95 percent in Greece (www.rbcdaily.ru, June 4).