Global investors anticipate Europe’s debt crisis leading to an economic slump, a financial meltdown and social unrest in the next year, with 72 percent predicting a country abandoning the euro as a shared currency within five years, a Bloomberg survey found.

About three-quarters of those questioned this week said the euro-area economy will fall into recession during the next 12 months, and 53 percent said turmoil will worsen in a banking sector laden with government bonds, according to the quarterly Global Poll of 1,031 investors, analysts and traders conducted by West Des Moines-based Selzer & Co. Inc. Forty percent see the 17-nation currency bloc losing at least one member in the next year.

More than a third of participants say deteriorating European debt will derail the world economy over the next year, with the pessimism highlighting the pressure European policy-makers face as they try again to fix their 18-month sovereign crisis. Stocks last week tumbled into their first bear market in two years, and foreign leaders, including President Barack Obama, are urging European leaders to intensify their rescue efforts.

“It’s a bad crisis,” said Jean-Yves Chereau, a poll respondent and chief investment officer at Halkin Investments LLP in London. “Since the resurgence of troubles in Greece, you suddenly have a crisis of confidence and trust, and that’s impacting markets and could hurt economies. Politicians need to move ahead pretty quickly.”

To read the Bloomberg article, click here. .