Majority of Kazakhstanis satisfied with country's economic situation - poll
According to Head of the Expert Department of the Institute Madina Nurgaliyeva, 45.2% of Kazakhstanis strongly believe in improvement of the country's economic situation while 43% of the respondents are confident in improvement of their financial situation. In whole, the majority of Kazakhstanis (56.3%) is positive on these issues.
"Amid general optimism, the level of anxiety and fear of the population remains high. Rise in prices and tariffs as well as utility tariffs are the traditional causes of anxiety (64.5%). Health problems, quality of medical services, unemployment, low income and housing are the top five sources of people's fears.
As for population's purchasing capacity, more than half of Kazakhstanis (53.5%) are able to buy only basic products. 17.8% of the population is able to buy only basic products and cannot pay for utilities services. 12.2% of the population can buy some more expensive goods and 6.4% of Kazakhstanis live in debts. Every 20th citizen only says that he or she can afford almost whatever he/she wants.
Concerning the situation in the Middle East and Northern Africa, the majority of Kazakhstanis (65.7%) believes that the mass riots in Kazakhstan are quite unlikely or impossible. In the respondents' opinion, the ability of Kazakhstan to respond to natural disasters is not high: 43.5% of respondents believe that Kazakhstan is not ready for any disasters.
60% of the population says that construction of the nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan will be very dangerous. Every fifth citizen only understands that nuclear power plants are necessary for good functioning of the electric power system.
Every fifth citizen of Kazakhstan expressed positive attitude to the amnesty of the prisoners dedicated to the 20th anniversary of Kazakhstan's independence. The majority (41.2%) is negative on this initiative.
2, 293 people participated in the poll in total.