According to Eurobarometer, 96% of Portuguese see the current economic situation as negative and 57% believe it will deteriorate further next year.
The Autumn Barometer from the EC was published on Friday and shows a slight increase in the confidence of European citizens in the future of the union with only the southern countries remaining pessimistic.
Although 57% of Portuguese believe that in 2014 the national economic situation will deteriorate (the EU average is 30%), 11% believe that performance in the Portuguese economy may improve.
The countries that were even more downhearted than the Portuguese were, unsurprisingly, Greece with 63%, and Cyprus with 72%.
The 96% of Portuguese who see the situation as negative is the same percentage as in Spain and Croatia, surpassed only by Cyprus with 97% and Greece with 98% against an EU average of 68%.
Also noteworthy, but hardly surprising, was that Ireland, having recently left its Troika programme, appears more optimistic on various indicators. While in Portugal 67% of respondents think the worst unemployment is yet to come, only 35% of the Irish have the same answer.
