Over a quarter of Romanians have lower incomes than before the pandemic, IRES survey says

28% of the Romanians aged over 18 said they have lower incomes than before the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to an IRES survey commissioned by the National Union of the Insurance and Reinsurance Societies in Romania and conducted this month. One of the effects of the crisis is that people plan to narrow down expenses on home appliances, cars or vacations.

63% of the respondents over 18 said their incomes are similar to the ones they had before the state of emergency.

Among respondents aged from 18 to 50, the share of the ones whose incomes remained the same stands at 49%, while 38% have seen their incomes dropping.

As a consequence, most of the Romanians stated they will curtail their expenses and will delay acquisitions in the upcoming period: 60% said they will not buy home appliances anymore, 57% won’t buy cars, while 54% said they won’t go on holiday abroad anymore this year.

In terms of financial stability, over half of the Romanians aged over 18 (55%) confessed they have savings to manage in the coming months, as against 63% of those aged from 18 to 50.

31% said that they will even save money, considering the delayed or lower expenses.

Among the favorite financial saving tools for the Romanians aged from 18 to 50, the most frequent mentioned were the bank deposit, buying foreign currency and life insurance policy that also has the saving component.

At the same time, 31% of the Romanians are now more interested in insuring their house/apartment, 28% are more interested in the health insurance products, and 20% of such financial protection solutions that cover the unemployment.