| | | Romanians and Bulgarians think that their life is much poorer than last year | | -October 21, 2003- | Romanians and Bulgarians are at the top of South-European people who think that their situation is much poorer than last year (20%, respectively 23% of the total population), followed by the Polish with 17%. Only 8% of the Czechs have this opinion. This situation resulted from the Consumer's Confidence Barometer, co-financed by the EU and carried out by GfK Romania. The barometer is primarily addressed to companies, either private or state-owned, as well as governmental departments, managers, researchers, decision-makers, banks, European institutions, the media and the large public.
The data included in this survey were collected through filled out questionnaires and they show the consumers' perception of following issues: household's financial status, general economic status, changes of consumption prices, developments of the unemployment rate, purchase of durables, people's savings, people's financial situation in terms of savings, intention to buy a car, intention to buy / build a house, intention to spend large amounts of money for improving the home. The survey was carried out for citizens in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland and Romania.
Regarding the family's financial status in comparison with 12 months before, 2% of the Czechs and 2% of the Romanians consider that their status is much better. In Bulgaria and Poland, 0% of the respondents gave a positive answer to this question. 17% of the Romanians think that their situation is a bit better than last year, as opposed to 11% of the Czechs, 6% of the Polish and 6% of the Bulgarians.
As to the future, only 9% of the Romanians think that their financial situation will be much worse one year from now, a higher percentage than in the case of Czechs (4%) and Polish (7%), though lower than Bulgarians (12%). 25% of the Romanians hope that their financial situation will be slightly better 12 months from now, and 2% think that it will be much better. 17% of the Czechs believe that they will have a better situation one year from now, and 2% think that it will be much better. The most optimistic are the Bulgarians and Polish, of whom only 12%, respectively 11% think that their situation will be less good next year (while no respondents in Bulgaria or Poland think that their situation will be much better next year).
Romanian citizens are still very much afraid of the rapid increase of prices and of unemployment. 32% of Romanians claim that "prices will increase much faster" and 47% think that "they will increase constantly", while only 23% of the Czechs, 11% of the Polish and 8% of Bulgarians are afraid of a rapid increase of prices. The fear of unemployment though is higher in Poland than in Romania - 31%, compared to 28%.
In spite of the skeptical attitude regarding the current and future financial situation, Romania has a good position in terms of savings: 14% of our citizens manage "to save something", compared to 9% of Bulgarians and 11% of the Polish. Those who save the most are the Czechs, with 49% of the respondents. 1% of the Romanians think that they can save a lot, being outranked in this respect only by the Czechs (7%), while the percentage in Bulgaria and Poland is 0.
There are however many Romanians (54%) who claim that they are barely able to cover their monthly expenses, a percentage that is exceeded by Polish (61%) and Bulgarians (73%).
As to the intention to buy durables, only 10% of the Romanians claim that they will buy a car within the next 2 years. 89% state that they will not buy any, while the others are undecided. When it comes to buying or building a house, the percentage is even lower: 6% admit that they will probably buy or build a home or holidays house, while 93% state that they will probably do no such thing. In terms of improving the comfort of their home (including the purchase of individual heating units), Romanians prove to be more determined and with bigger financial resources, as 23% of the respondents claimed that they probably undertake such improvements.
The survey is carried out every month on a monthly sample of 1000 people that are representative for Romania's population aged over 16.
The GfK group is one of the first five international market research companies, achieving in 2002 sales of 568 million EUR through its four divisions - Consumer Tracking, Non-Food Tracking, Media and Ad Hoc research.
|
| | |
|
|
