National Statistics: Over 75% of people find it difficult to cover daily expenses

A National Statistical Institute (NSI) survey shows that more than 75% of respondents had difficulties covering their daily expenses in the first three months of the year. The data are from a supplementary survey to the Household Budget Observation to monitor changes in household living conditions on a quarterly basis. 5,682 persons aged 16 and over from 3,053 households were interviewed.

35.8% of the respondents experienced difficulties to cover their daily expenses, 26.8% found it difficult to cover their daily expenses and 14.2% found it very difficult. The proportion of people finding it very difficult to cover the daily expenses increased by 0.6 percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2022.

19.7% of individuals are able to cover their daily expenses with relative ease, while only 3.5% do not experience any difficulty. Overall, the proportion of individuals with no difficulties in the first quarter increased by 1.5 percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2022.

31.2% of respondents have limited their energy consumption during the heating season. 28.8% of persons living in urban areas indicated that they could not afford sufficient energy consumption. In rural areas, the proportion of persons with energy consumption limitations was 37.8%, 9 percentage points higher than in urban areas.

In the first quarter of 2023, the household income for 74.6% of the individuals remained unchanged from the last 12 months. This share increased by 1.6 percentage points compared to the same quarter in 2022.

An increase in income was indicated by 20.1% of the persons, which is also 1.6 percentage points higher than in the first quarter of 2022 when 18.5% of persons had an increase.

The proportion of persons indicating a decrease in income over the past 12 months decreased in the first quarter of 2023 to 5.3%, a decrease of 3.2 percentage points from the same quarter in 2022.