A lack of jobs, mounting bills and no money – a common scenario for many in the midst of a financial crisis. And according to recent figures, most Danes believe they are still in the middle of the economic downturn that started in 2008.
Research by YouGov for metroXpress newspaper shows that most Danes believe their country is yet to pull through the credit crunch era.
Of the 1,013 people aged 18-74 asked by YouGov, only 24 percent said that they believed the crisis was over.
Eleven percent were unsure, and as many as 65 percent answered ‘no’ when asked if the recession had abated in Denmark.
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Consumer confidence on way up
The clear-cut results came as a mystery to some.
One of them, Flemming Ibsen, a professor in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Aalborg University, believes that Denmark has already pulled out of the recession.
Both employment and consumer confidence are on the way up, he argued, and Nationalbanken, the financial sector and business leaders are all expecting economic growth in the coming years.
“I would definitely say ‘yes, we are out of the financial crisis,’” he told metroXpress. “Even though there is no talk of a massive amount of jobs, all statistics and key players indicate that we out of the crisis.”
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Attitude shift from companies
Banks are also noticing a shift. ”There are clear indications that we are on our way out of the crisis,” Jacob Graven, the chief economist at Sydbank, explained to metroXpress.
“We are seeing a change of mood, particularly from companies that have had a noticeably better outlook in the past year.”
The global financial crisis of 2007-2008, which left many without jobs and homes across Denmark, has been widely described by many economists as the worst recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
