Over 60 percent of citizens believe that the state is not ready to deal with the economic crisis and inflation, according to a phone poll conducted by the Institute for Political Research Skopje (IPIS) for the Detector show on a representative sample of 1,119 respondents conducted in the period from 23 to 26 December.

According to the poll, 60.7 percent of the respondents believe that the country is not ready to deal with the economic crisis and inflation, while 32.4 percent see readiness. As many as 62.7 percent of the citizens are of the opinion that the current measures introduced by the government to deal with the consequences of the economic crisis and inflation are not yielding results, while 28.5 percent of the respondents see their effect. The most dissatisfied with the measures are in the Pelagonia region, where 69 percent of the citizens are of the opinion that the government’s measures do not produce results.

The majority of the citizens – 56.8 percent are pessimistic regarding the expectations for this year and believe that inflation and the cost of living will increase, while a quarter is of the opinion that they will be approximately the same as the current ones. Only 9.5 percent expect a decrease.

The majority of the citizens expect the economic crisis to last for several years. This attitude is shared by 31.8 percent of the respondents. 23.8 percent expect the end of the crisis at the end of this year, while 17.7 percent believe that the economic crisis will end in two years.

Most of the citizens believe that the government had the greatest influence and responsibility for the current economic crisis. On a scale from 1 to 5, 44 percent of citizens gave the Government a “five” for the degree of responsibility for the crisis, 33.2 percent rated the war in Ukraine with the highest degree of responsibility for the crisis, and 29 percent cited other external factors.

According to citizens, the corona pandemic and the opposition had the least impact on the crisis.

On a scale from 1 to 5, the government received the highest average rating as the highest degree of responsibility for the current economic crisis. Its average rating is 3.95, and 44.3 percent of the respondents believe that it had a great impact on the crisis, while only 8.2 percent believe that the policies of the government did not affect the economic crisis. With an average rating of 3.9, citizens believe that other external factors had a great impact on the crisis. The opposition has the lowest mean score for its impact on the crisis. On a scale from 1 to 5, the citizens rated it 3.13.