Flash Eurobarometer 279: The euro area, 2009, Public attitudes and perceptions

A majority of seven out of 10 citizens of the euro-area countries believed that having the euro was a good thing for Europe. A clear majority of respondents felt comfortable with handling the euro. 91% found it very easy or rather easy to distinguish or handle euro banknotes and 75% said so about euro coins. There is a continuing misperception of the inflationary effect of the euro – citizens in the euro area (except Slovakia) had a predominant perception that the euro increased the inflation rate in their country. However, there was a significant decrease of 10 percentage points in this perception compared to 2008. Citizens in the four Member States that recently joined the euro area reported an increase in prices during the changeover. People in the euro area acknowledged that consequences of the ageing of populations would need to be taken into account when devising economic policy. Despite the economic slowdown, respondents in the euro area seemed to have and to expect to retain a rather stable personal (or household) income.

The results by volumes are distributed as follows:

• Volume A: Countries
• Volume AA: Groups of countries
• Volume A' (AP): Trends
• Volume AA' (AAP): Trends of groups of countries
• Volume B: EU/socio-demographics
• Volume B' (BP) : Trends of EU/ socio-demographics
• Volume C: Country/socio-demographics

Researchers may also contact GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences: https://www.gesis.org/eurobarometer