KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 15 — Eighty per cent of Malaysians believe it will take the local economy a minimum of two years to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new Ipsos poll.
In its “Expectations Towards National Recovery” report, exactly 50 per cent of respondents also said they had faith in the government to lead the recovery efforts.
For context, the report said 44 per cent of Malaysians believed the country’s recovery will take between two and three years while 36 per cent believed it would take over three years.
Only 3 per cent believed that the nation has already recovered while 17 per cent believed that the national economy will recover within a year.
Globally, China was the only country where the majority of its population — 56 per cent — believed that their economy had already recovered while only 3 per cent believed it would take more than three years for a full economic recovery.
For the United States, another economic powerhouse, only 7 per cent believed that their economy has recovered, 37 per cent believed that recovery will take a year, while 63 per cent believed that it will take more than two years for their economy to recover.
In terms of trust towards governmental efforts towards a national economic recovery, Malaysian respondents expressed faith in their government that was above the global average of 34 per cent.
The survey also found that most Malaysians gauge economic recovery in terms of the establishment of new business (84 per cent), an influx of tourism (83 per cent), as well as people being called back to work (83 per cent).
Other indicators also include people taking vacations (76 per cent) and new development or infrastructure projects being built (75 per cent).
The survey polled 21,503 adults aged 18 to 74 years’ old across 29 countries online.
