Inflation affects Romanians’ plans and budgets for holiday gifts. According to the latest survey carried out by the online recruitment platform BestJobs, Romanian employees allocate a budget 40% lower than last year for the gifts they plan to give to friends and family for Christmas. More precisely, 52% say that they allocated an amount of money of no more than 300 lei for this Christmas, while more than half planned to allocate no more than 500 lei in 2021. In addition, 26% will allocate between 301 and 500 lei, 12% give 501-1000 lei, and 10% do not plan to buy any gifts this year.
When it comes to Christmas traditions at work, only 40% said they still organize Secret Santa. Among them, 51% allocate a budget of no more than 100 lei for this occasion, 23% even plan a larger budget, and 27% will not exceed the amount of 50 lei.Although this year there is no shortage of gifts such as Christmas-themed mugs, warm Christmas sweaters, socks, cosmetics and personalized items, among those who will give gifts to colleagues/bosses this year, 17% will give books, 15% decorative items Christmas and also 15% sweets, while 13% will give something as practical and useful as a gift.
Most Romanian employees spend Christmas and New Year’s Eve with their families
Christmas remains the holiday that brings family members together, with 75% of respondents to the BestJobs survey saying they will spend it this way. Similarly, 42% of Romanians will spend New Year’s Eve, while 12% plan to party with friends, 13% only with their partner, and another 14% have not booked anything yet.
If last year, the budget of most of the respondents for Christmas gifts and the New Year’s party was no more than 500 lei each, currently, almost 38% declare that they will have a budget of less than 300 lei available for the New Year’s party, while the percentage of people who will not spend anything for this event is 16%.
The BestJobs survey was conducted between November 20 and December 10, on a sample of 1,049 internet users.