BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s popularity among German voters is at its highest level in three years, according to a poll published on Thursday that also confirmed strong support for her stance in the euro zone debt crisis.

The survey by YouGov, due to be printed in Monday’s edition of Bild newspaper, found 33 percent in favor of her stance but 48 percent against, a setback for the chancellor who is to seek a third term in a 2013 federal election, which she has vowed to make a vote on Europe.

In mid July, a poll by ZDF Politbarometer showed 63 percent of Germans backed Merkel’s handling of the crisis, although a majority thought she should explain her policies better.

Another poll at the start of July by Infratest ARD put support for Merkel’s crisis policies at 58 percent, although 85 percent of those polled also expected the crisis to get worse.

July 16 (Bloomberg) — Chancellor Angela Merkel gave no ground on Germany’s demands for more central control over euro member states in return for joint burden sharing as the region struggles to contain the debt crisis.

Euro zone leaders agreed to relax conditions on emergency loans for Spanish banks and possible help for Italy as an outflanked Merkel gave in on expanded steps to stem the debt crisis.

Last week Moody’s Investors Service changed its outlook for Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg to negative from stable as Germany might have to increase its support for troubled states.

Alexandra Zucchi is a business journalist based in Hobart, Australia. Alexandra has a passion for financial markets and breaking news stories and loves writing about business news, stock market, and economic opinions that matters most to its audience. Alexandra spends a lot of time discovering and researching latest financial markets and industry news stories in order to make sure the latest and greatest stories are brought to you first on BigBoardNews.com.