ATHENS, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Almost two thirds of all Greeks refuse to make personal financial sacrifices to help their government find a way out of fiscal crisis, an opinion poll showed on Saturday.
Greek bonds, stocks and credit default swaps have all taken a beating in the past weeks over rising concerns about the euro zone member's deteriorating finances.
Rating agencies and EU policymakers have urged debt-laden Greece to follow the example of Ireland, which has won plaudits for cutting wages for hundreds of thousands of public employees. But 65.4 percent of a total 2,200 respondents surveyed nationwide by agency Metron Analysis for newspaper Imerisia, said they were not prepared to make any sacrifices to help public finances.
A total 63.7 percent said government waste and corruption were to blame for the bad shape the economy is in, according to the poll.
Greece, a continuous violator of the euro zone's budget rules, is mired in its first recession in 16 years. Still, the government has vowed to narrow the budget deficit by 4 percentage points to 8.7 percent of GDP next year.
Ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut Greece's rating by one notch to BBB+ from A- on Wednesday. Fitch Ratings downgraded Greece last week and Moody's, the other major arbiter of creditworthiness, is expected to make its own move soon.
They cite expected political resistance to the Socialist government's plans to slash the state deficit from an expected 12.7 percent of gross domestic product this year to the EU limit of 3 percent by 2013 as one reason for the downgrades.
Greece's new Socialist government won Oct. 4 elections on a platform to tax the rich and help the poor, as well as fight tax evasion, public sector waste and corruption.
Despite the fiscal crisis, the Socialists still enjoy a comfortable lead over the main opposition conservatives, the poll showed.
Support for the ruling Socialist PASOK party is at 38.3 percent, compared with 27.9 percent for the opposition New Democracy party which lost power in the October election. (Reporting by Harry Papachristou; Editing by Mike Peacock)