Unlike older age groups, young Romanians manage to save money every month
Price hikes for foodstuffs, gas, and electricity, not to mention higher interest rates, are taking a toll on Romanians’ budgets, but a third of young people still manage to save money every month, a recent survey shows.
In the last 12 months, more than half of Romanians between 55 and 75 years old told surveyors that they haven’t borrowed any money, but slightly over a third of them haven’t managed to put any money aside either, according to a survey conducted by Kantar Poland and cited by Economedia.ro.
A tougher economic environment is weathered somewhat better by the young. Approximately 35% of those up to the age of 34 are left with money in excess of their monthly expenses. Only 17% of those in the 35-54 age category and 13% in the 55-75 segment of the population can say the same.
Overall, the majority of respondents in Romania (63%) claim that they have a small amount of money left at the end of the month, after expenses. Roughly 13% say they are left with nothing. On average, 51% of Europeans say they still have money after monthly expenses, while 15% say that their entire monthly budget ends up being spent.
More than a third (36%) of Romanians admitted to having made no savings in the past year, according to the same survey. Roughly 30% say they were able to save up a small amount of money each month. This percentage does not vary much depending on the age or gender of the respondents. Last year, men (34%) were able to save money to a greater extent than women (28%).
Romanians’ most important monthly expenses, as revealed by the responses to the survey, are those related to utilities and food. More money was also allocated for home and health insurance in the last year. Meanwhile, about half of Romanians buy clothes, and shoes, and invest in personal care services and products every month.
While two-thirds of Romanian respondents borrowed money last year, this year around 44% did not take a penny. People between the ages of 55 and 75 were the most reluctant to take out loans, with more than half saying that they did not borrow any money.
When they did borrow money, Romanians preferred to do so from family (30%), followed by banks and other financial institutions (23.1%), friends and colleagues (15.6%), or other people and institutions (3.6%).
The survey was commissioned by International Personal Finance (IPF), a British group that operates loan service Provident in Romania.
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