The gloom of wealthy U.S. and Japanese investors about the prospects for the global economy in the next five years is only surpassed by the pessimism of those in Monaco, according to a survey by Barclays plc and reported today by Bloomberg.

More than half the people in Monaco with more than 1 million pounds ($1.44 million) to invest expect the economy to deteriorate, London-based Barclays Wealth said in a report. That compares with 35 percent in Japan, 25 percent in the United States, 17 percent in Switzerland and 16 percent in the United Kingdom.

“We’re seeing in our conversations with clients that there is skepticism about things picking up,” Philippe Sednaoui, chief executive officer of Barclays’s Swiss wealth business, said in an interview with Bloomberg. The most optimistic investors are in Spain, where 40 percent expect the global economy to expand in the next five years.

Those with more than 10 million pounds to invest are more negative than single-digit millionaires, Barclays found in the survey of 2,000 investors in 20 countries during February and March. The International Monetary Fund forecast last month that the world economy will expand 4.2 percent in 2010, the fastest pace since 2007.

The rich prefer to invest in property, which they see as the safest asset class, and the one with which they are often most familiar, said Sednaoui.

“Clients were telling us they were afraid of inflation and property is a good reserve of value, not unlike people investing in gold, but how much gold can you have in a portfolio?” he said.