Illustrative stock photo (source: Sme)
Two-thirds of a representative sample of households indicates that they work with a well-balanced household budget with enough money to cover basic needs, larger expenses, and that they have money to spare.
The largest part of this group is comprised of 43 percent of households, which have enough financial resources to cover basic needs and demonstrate a tendency to save money.
More people are choosing costlier food and clothes
More than a fifth of Slovaks reported a balanced budget and stated that they have enough money to cover their needs.
Only 2 percent of Slovaks described their financial situation as “opulent,” which would mean that alongside covering their basic needs they can also afford to go on shopping sprees while saving money. This comes from research conducted by Kruk Czech and the Slovak Republic.
In comparison to 2020, there has been a mild decrease of Slovak households whose representatives indicated that they have enough money to cover their basic needs and are saving for important expenses.
In 2020, the sum of people who reported the aforementioned made up 46 percent of respondents whereas in 2021 they made up 43 percent of respondents. Year on year, the share of respondents who stated that they do not have enough money for even the cheapest food and clothing options grew by 1.5 percent.
Jaroslava Palendová of Kruk stated that it is good that at the height of the pandemic the financial situation of many Slovak households did not deteriorate.
“The revealed year-on-year changes are minimal, but in the long run, we can see that a trend marking the improving financial situation for many Slovaks has come to an end," Palendová said. "A good financial situation is reported by a slightly lower number of households with mortgages and by a practically unchanged number of Slovaks with savings."
Almost a third of all households can’t afford hobbies
Though there were not many major year-on-year changes in the overall situation of finances, the structure of expenditure has changed significantly. For example, almost a third of households stated that they do not spend any money on entertainment and hobbies, compared to the 17 percent in 2020.
More respondents also stated that they do not spend any financial resources on health and healthcare. In 2020, this group made up 6 percent of respondents, in 2021 this group made up 11 percent of respondents.
Slovaks tend to spend less on pharmaceuticals, but the share of spending on therapeutic baths and rehabilitation increased.
