• In February, 75.5% of Australians believed there would be no forecasted recession in the next 12 months. Now, just 3 months later, 73.4% believe Australia WILL slip into a recession in the next 12 months
• 55% of Australians thought the Australian economy was “average” in February and 28% said it was “in good shape”.
• Now, 37% still think our economy is average and 34% say it is “in bad shape”. 20% of Australians still think our economy is in “good shape”.

“The economic consequence of the coronavirus closures and lockdowns means 73%of us think a recession is unavoidable. You gotta love the 27% who think wearen’t. They’ve got to be the country’s greatest optimists! But there’s also aslight chance they could be right,” said Peter Switzer, Director of SwitzerFinancial Group.

“It’s the reopening of the economy and the surprise revelation that only 3million, not 6 million people, needed JobKeeper that has raised hopes that theeconomy and therefore company profits won’t be as badly hit as we onceexpected.”

Australians have rather balanced opinions on what poses the greatest threat tothe economic prosperity of Australia.

In February 2020, 41% of Australians believed a “lack of investment bybusiness and government” was the greatest threat to our economy. 16% equallybelieved “falling productivity” and “foreign ownership and control of ourresources” were to blame. Meanwhile, 9% pinned climate change as the greatestthreat to the economic prosperity of Australia.

In May 2020, these opinions spread more evenly. 26% of Australians now believe“foreign ownership and control of our resources” is the biggest threat toAustralia’s economic prosperity. 25% think “lack of investment by business andgovernment” is the greatest threat, 23% say “too much borrowing” and 21% think“falling productivity”. Just 6% of Australians say climate change is ourgreatest economic threat.

This more equal contrast of opinion about our economic and political positionscorrelate with the increased support for our current Prime Minister. 88% ofAustralians surveyed say they are happy with Scott Morrison’s performance asPrime Minister, which is an almost 30% increase in 3 months.

“It goes to show that people are happy that businesses and the economy aregoing back to normal. You can see this in the figures, with 64% of Australianssaying lockdowns were lifted at the right time. Australians aren’t scared ofthe Coronavirus or a second leg down and that’s why they’re siding with ScoMoand his decisions to get things back to normal!” says Peter Switzer.

The same cannot be said for Donald Trump, despite 62.37% still believing Trumpwill be re-elected as US President in November, which is down from 90% inFebruary. That’s almost a 30% drop in the 3 months since our first survey!

The Fear, Greed & Hope Survey is a quarterly survey released by SwitzerFinancial Group, which launched in February 2020. Over 2500 respondentsparticipated in our February survey and almost 3000 respondents participatedin our May survey.

Our demographic predominantly reflects the investing strategies of middle tomature aged investors, who are either full-time workers or retirees. Themajority of our database prefer to invest in stocks.

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