Study: More than half of Romanians think economic situation worse than during communist time

The country's economic situation is seen as bad or very bad at this time by 81 percent of the people, while only 15 percent think the country has good or very good economic situation, according to a study conducted by the Romanian Institute for Assessment and Strategy (IRES). More than half of the Romanians believe that the country's current economic situation is worse or much worse than the one before 1989, in the communist period, However, Romanians are still optimistic overall, as 52 percent of them consider that in five years the economy will get better, while 11 percent believe it will be the same, and 26 percent think it will be worse. The lack of money is identified as the biggest personal problem by 23 percent of the respondents. About 80 percent of Romanians are concerned about the level of corruption, health and the gap between the rich people and the poor ones, while 64 percent are concerned about their personal economic situation. More than 90 percent of respondents believe that most of the rich people in Romania have made their fortune unfairly, while only 4 percent believe that they have made an honest fortune. According to the study, 94 percent of the respondents considered that it's difficult or very difficult to buy a house in Romania at this moment. Read more here(in Romanian).The IRES study was conducted this September on a sample of 1383 individuals over 18 years. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com (photo source: Sxc.hu)