People around the world want government stimulus fiesta to carry on

A new study that polled over 22,000 people in 20 countries which was conducted for the BBC World Service showed that majority of people around the world support significantly increasing government spending to counter the economic crisis.

Earlier this month the G20 finance leaders came to decision not to remove emergency stimulus until the recovery was well entrenched.

According to the survey data 60% of the polled expressed their approval of "significantly increasing government spending to stimulate the economy."

The highest number of those who support the idea of the government stimulus was recorded in Nigeria (87%), Egypt (83%) and Russia (81%). France and Germany showed much lower figures with only 39% and 42% approving the government bailout program respectively. Meantime, Britain recorded 60% of people who favored significantly increasing government spending to stimulate the economy. Americans were divided on the issue with 48% in favor and 48% against the idea.

"People around the world are looking for a dynamic approach to the economic crisis," said Steven Kull, director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland in the United States, which conducted the survey with Canadian polling firm GlobeScan.

Especially strong support was for investments in renewable energy and green technology (72%) and for major industries and companies in trouble (62%). On the other hand only 51% expressed their approval of providing financial help to banks in trouble while in the US 63% opposed giving financial support to troubled banks and 55% were against such a help to industries.

2/3 of respondents said that they wanted to see an increase in government regulation and oversight of their economies.

Only 49% supported the idea of giving more power to international institutions so that they could regulate the global economy.

46% of all respondents expressed their satisfaction with what the United States has been doing to address the crisis, compared with 39% who were dissatisfied. On the other hand 44% on average were content with their own government's response.