Romanian households’ discretionary expenses up by 30%-40% y/y in Q1

Consumption expenditures per household in Romania rose by 10.7% y/y to RON 4,100 (EUR 820) in Q1 – faster than the 7.1% y/y average consumer price inflation. The households were able to boost discretionary expenses (not a large part of their budgets) much quicker, as the prices of food and utilities were kept under control by authorities.

Thus, the households spent over 40% more on entertainment, education, culture, and education compared to the same period last year.

As a share of total budgets, the two categories accounted for 2.9% compared to 2.4% in the same period last year.

The budgets for HoReCa rose by 37.1% y/y and accounted for 2.1% of total households’ budgets on average, up from 1.7% in Q1 2023.

The expenditure for transportation, typically considered a non-discretionary, rose by 26.2% y/y to 7.3% of the total budget from 6.4% last year. However, in the Romanian context, this category reflects, at least to some extent, a discretionary expense as it is linked to leisure rather than commuting.

The expenses for typical non-discretionary categories of food and housing increased by 6% y/y and 1.6%, respectively, while their share in the total budget decreased to a combined 50.6% from 53.5%.

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