Poll: Zimbabweans see bleak economy

HARARE, Zimbabwe, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Zimbabweans say economic conditions in the African country are worsening and their personal well-being has fallen, a Gallup Poll released Tuesday indicates.

Respondents thought their personal well-being declined fell from a mean score of 3.8 to 3.2 between 2006 and 2008, a meaningful change, the poll found.

As inflation and political repression mounted and economic conditions deteriorated, pollsters for the Princeton, N.J., firm said it wasn't surprising dissatisfaction with the standard of living had increased since 2006. In 2006, 77 percent of Zimbabweans expressed dissatisfaction, compared with 88 percent who said the same about a year later. In 2008, more than 91 percent said they were dissatisfied with their standard of living.

In addition, 68 percent of people 15 years of age or older, indicated in the latest poll they didn't have a job.

Zimbabweans were nearly unanimous in their negative assessments of their country's economy, Gallup said. Ninety-nine percent said they thought current economic conditions weren't good and 97 percent said they thought conditions were getting worse.

Results were based on face-to-face interviews conducted in March with 1,000 adults, aged 15 and older, in Zimbabwe. The sampling has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.