63% of Romanians remain with a small amount of income at the end of the month. More than 56% of Romanians between the ages of 55 and 75 say that they have not taken a single leu loan in the last 12 months.
Young people up to 34 years old are the only age group among respondents in Romania who state that they are left with a reasonable amount of money each month (35%), after taking into account monthly expenses and income, compared to 17% of respondents from the 35-54 age group and 13.2% from the 55-75 age group, according to a survey conducted by Kantar Poland and commissioned by the British group International Personal Finance (IPF), present in seven European countries, as well as in Mexico and Australia and which also operates Provident Financial Romania.
Overall, the majority of Romanian respondents (63%) claim that they have a small amount of money left at the end of the month, after taking into account monthly expenses and income. This level is 2pp higher than last year. At the same time, 13% of respondents stated that they are left with nothing (the same percentage as last year).
The most important monthly expenses of Romanians
Less than 3% of respondents said they were left with a large amount of money. The situation is similar in the European countries that participated in the survey – 51% of European respondents (including those from Romania) say that they are left with a small amount of money every month, while 15% spend their entire income and do not have a single leu end of the month.
Regarding saving, 36% of Romanian respondents declared that they had not put a penny aside in the last 12 months, an increase compared to last year (34%). Only 30% of respondents claim that they can save at least a small amount of money each month. This percentage does not vary greatly according to the age or gender of the respondents. Just like last year, in the last 12 months, men (34%) saved money to a greater extent than women (28%).
Although the most important monthly expenses of Romanians are those related to utilities, food, telecommunications services and streaming and TV services, in the last 12 months people also allocated a recurring budget for insurance products (such as home or home insurance health).
At the same time, Romanians are also concerned with their physical appearance, so that, every month, approximately half of Romanians buy clothes or shoes, but also invest in personal care services and products, such as cosmetic treatments or haircuts.
Most Romanians borrowed last year
The majority of Romanians (66%) needed to borrow money last year, but the percentage of those who did not borrow any leu increased from 42% to 44%. People aged between 55 and 75 were the most reserved about taking out loans, and 56% of those in this age group said they had not borrowed money from anywhere.
The study was conducted in May 2022 on a sample of 4,519 people aged 18-75 from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Australia and Mexico. 500 respondents were from Romania.