Three in ten Romanians can’t afford a car

Almost three in ten (29.8%) Romanians could not afford a car in 2017, the highest share in the European Union (EU), according to Eurostat data. By comparison, only 20.6% of Bulgarians and 20.1% of Hungarians said the same, while the EU average stood at 7%. The lowest percentage of people unable to afford a car were in Cyprus and Malta (both 1.7% of total population), followed by Luxembourg (2.2%), Italy and France (both 2.7%). Another Eurostat survey shows that 52.5% of Romanians were unable to face unexpected financial expenses in 2017, the fifth-highest share in EU. Latvians were leading this ranking, with almost 60% of them saying they couldn’t face unexpected financial expenses. The EU average was 33.9%. New car sales could reach 125,000 units in Romania this year editor@romania-insider.com