The survey was conducted by Kantar Poland at the request of British group International Personal Finance (IPF). Present in seven European countries, as well as in Mexico and Australia, the IPF group operates Provident Financial Romania in our country.
By age group, a third of the adults aged 35 to 54 save a reasonable amount each month, a significant increase against the previous year. The number of those aged over 55 is up moderately, while the number of young people under 34 saving monthly has remained relatively constant at 40%.
“The inflationary period we are going through continues to put pressure on the personal and family budgets, making unexpected expenses often difficult to manage. Romanians’ relationship with money remains complicated, especially among those on low incomes. More than 30% of those who need a loan rely on friends or family. Our aim is to support financial inclusion by creating a credit history for those customers who cannot borrow from a bank,” said Florin Balcan, General Manager of Provident Financial Romania.
The increase in the number of people who said they managed to save comes amid a general improvement in people’s perception of their financial situation over the past 12 months: almost 25% of the respondents said they are in a better financial situation now than last year, with the biggest increase among adults aged up to 54, and 50% said their situation remained the same. For a quarter of Romanians, the perception of their financial situation has worsened over the past year, but this is almost 20% less than last year.
The same survey revealed that 34% of Romanians did not make any savings over the last 12 months. Of those who have managed to put money aside, the most thrifty were young people between 18 and 24, 46% of whom have saved a sum of money whenever they could, compared to 2022, when only 17.7% did so. For 32% of Romanians, the money they saved would be enough for at least six months. In addition, 10% of them say the amount saved would be enough for one year.
The number of those who say they have borrowed in the last 12 months from financial institutions (banks and non-banks) increased by almost 13% compared to last year. The most active category was the 25-34 age group, which saw an increase of almost 50% over the previous year.
In terms of future plans, 61.7% of Romanians say they will not take out a loan in the next 12 months, the main reasons being thrift (19%) and concerns about the evolution of their personal financial situation (12.5%).