BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):

Barbadians are very concerned about the rising cost of living and the amount of money the government is spending on Cricket World Cup 2007, according to an opinion poll published yesterday.

More than one-third of the respondents to the survey said the high cost of living was their major worry. The state of the economy was the next greatest concern, followed by unemployment.

Poll results

The poll was conducted by Caribbean Development Research Services and covered some 1,000 respondents.

The poll also revealed that a number of Barbadians were not happy with the amount of money being spent on next year's cricket tournament.

Forty per cent of respondents said they believed the government was overspending, while 25 per cent said disagreed.

"The perception that government was overspending on World Cup is presented from the perspective of the respondent's interest in cricket, and this reveals that there is a strong relationship between the user's level of interest and the perception that government was getting carried away in relation to its spending on the event," said pollster Peter Wickham.