On the other hand, 35% of Romanians said they had no savings (compared with 26% in Europe), down from 39% in December 2019, but Romania still has the largest percentage of people with no savings in Europe.
In Europe, 52% of respondents said they paid by card more and 44% said they preferred to order online during coronavirus restrictions.
In Europe, 44% of respondents said they were now spending less than before the virus swept across the world. these changes will have been driven by both necessity and choice. While some are no longer working and so actively limiting their daily spending due to reduced earnings, others are finding they have more left over at the end of each week simply because they don’t have the opportunity to go out and spend
The largest groups who now feel they are saving more are in Luxembourg (41%), Turkey (35%), the UK (33%), Italy (33%) and Spain (33%). Luxembourg (55%), Italy (55%)and the UK (51%) also had relatively large groups who said they were now spending less.
“The exceptional impact of the coronavirus crisis will have complex effects on the economy both on the short term – we estimate an economic contraction of 5.5% in 2020 – but also on the medium and long term due to changes in consumer behavior under the impact of the epidemic and measures to fight it. We expect an increase in the tendency to save, in line with the most recent data showing household deposits reached an all-time high in May, up 15.2% compared with May 2019,” said ING Bank Romania economist Valentin Tataru.
Around three to four in ten report having the equivalent of three months or less of their monthly take-home pay available. Further, just under one in ten say they do not know how much they have in savings.
Around four or five in ten report a healthy savings position with funds above three months of take-home pay. Those who are older (above 65 years), retired and living without children appear to characterize this group.
The findings come from combining two ING international surveys, conducted both before the lockdown (December 2019) and during (May 2020). Just under 26,000 people across 13 European countries answered questions about their savings, providing insight into how thinking about money has shifted.