A downcast Italy with less to
spend and a pessimistic outlook for the future, such that nearly
half of Italians now say they want to leave the country, shed a
gloomy light on the sunny Mediterranean country on Friday, in an
annual report by polling agency Eurispes.
Nearly one of every two Italians, or 45%, would like to
leave the country and live abroad, the Eurispes poll said.
Eurispes said this marked an increase of 8% from 2006, two
years before the global economic crisis.
The poll also found that almost half of Italians, 47%, say
they can't make it financially to the end of the month.
This was 16.4% up on last year, Eurispes said.
As well, four out of 10 Italians think the Italian economy
would do better outside the eurozone.
The percentage of Italians wanting out of the euro rose from
26% at the start of 2014 to 40% now, said Eurispes.
More than half the Euroskeptics think the single currency is
the chief cause of Italy's economic woes, it added.
The poll also showed that nearly half of Italians are paying
medical bills on installment plans, part of a growing trend for
all kinds of spending.
The 46.7% of those surveyed who reported paying medical
bills gradually has jumped by 24.3% from 2013, the pollster
said.
As well, 62.4% said they were paying for their cars on
installments, 60.4% used such plans for appliances, and just
over 50% bought computers and mobile phones by installment.
In fact, for 71.5% of Italians, purchasing power has
declined, and just over one out of every two Italians, 57%, say
they can't manage to pay for large expenses.
Italy's notoriously slow justice system also saw a decline
in its already-low popularity, where only 28.8% of respondents
said that they trust the judicial system.
That figure represents a 12.6% drop from one year ago, when
the level was at 41.4%, a decrease that Eurispes called
"worrisome and unexpected".
The low approval rating for the magistrate is even more
marked when considered in light of the fact that the percentage
of Italians who say they don't trust the judicial system
increased over the same period of time, rising from last year's
54.8% to 68.6% in this poll.
One area that saw exponential positive growth, however, was
Pope Francis's popularity, which reached an approval rating of
89.6%, according to the poll.
This favorable rating helped approval for the Catholic
Church to soar to a never-before-seen high of 62.6%.
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