Four out of ten Romanians cut their spending after coronavirus outbreak

About 46% of Romanians say they spent less money during the isolation regime, more than the European average of 44%. At the same time, 31% of the respondents say that they saved more, just above the European average of 30%, according to a survey made by ING Bank.

Luxembourgers (on high incomes) and Italians (on dropping incomes amid the major impact of the crisis) came in first when it comes to spending cuts (55%), followed by the Brits (51%).

Luxembourgers were the best in terms of savings as well (again, on high income hence high share of discretionary budgets), with 41% saying they put more money aside during this period than usual, followed by the Turks (35%), and at the opposite pole are the Czechs (18%) and the Austrians (23%).

At the same time, a third of Romanians declared in May that they have no savings at all, four percentage points below the level of December 2019, of 39%, but still well above the European average of 26%.

"The exceptional impact of the crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic will have complex effects on the economy, both in the short term - through the economic contraction that we estimate at -5.5% in 2020 - but also in the medium and long term, through the change consumer behavior under the impact of epidemiological developments, respectively measures to combat it," reads ING's report.

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