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They'll probably meet the news with a typically Gallic shrug, but the French are the saddest nation on the planet.

It's not just their strings of onions that make our friends across the Channel cry - they top the charts for being the most pessimistic people looking ahead to 2011.

The World Cup humiliation, which saw players sent home in disgrace and the team fail to win a game, won't have helped and nor does the handling of the economy by the enigmatic PM Nicolas Sarkozy.

People in developing economies, by contrast, tend to view the coming year more positively.

Now that the fireworks have been put out and the New Year’s bubbly downed, Europeans are ringing in 2011 in a far more downbeat mood, with the French the most pessimistic of them all.

A BVA-Gallup poll of 53 countries found the French the world champions of scepticism, with 61 per cent of respondents saying 2011 will be 'a year of economic difficulty.'

Britons were not far behind on 52 per cent, Spaniards 48 per cent and Italians 41 per cent.

The poll found that 67 per cent of French respondents believed unemployment would rise over the next 12 months.

Employment was also a major concern in the UK, with 74 per cent of Britons believing unemployment would increase. Pakistan came a close second at 72 per cent.

The overall negative sentiment in Europe comes in stark contrast to the emerging economies in Asia, South America and Africa, where citizens are generally optimistic about the New Year.

In Brazil, India and China, 49 per cent of respondents said they believed 2011 would be economically prosperous, with only 14 per cent predicting hardship.

Vietnam topped the optimism rating with 70 per cent Vietnamese expressing confidence in the economic outlook for 2011.

Even in war-torn countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq, respondents appeared to look forward to a brighter future with only 14 per cent of Afghans and 12 per cent of Iraqis fearing a deterioration of their situation.

The poll was conducted from October 11 to December 13, 2010, in 53 countries. More than 63,000 people were interviewed by telephone, face-to-face or online.

(Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)