Serbians spend less money than other Europeans do

By Rina Mihajlovic
Novi Sad, Aug.11, 2009 (Serbia Today) - Serbia is one of the countries that has the smallest spending budget for personal needs and spends less than anyone else in Europe besides Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria. Slovenia is the country that spends the most.
Average household in Slovenia spends 1.700 Euros monthly for their everyday needs while in Ukraine they spend 214 Euros and in Serbia 254 Euros.
The survey taken in 10 countries in Middle and East Europe has showed that households in Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria have to have 500 euro to make it through the month. The average monthly expenses are 410 euro for utility bills and food and if we take into consideration that monthly average salary is 340 euro it is clear that many families don’t have enough money for living.
Checks and Slovaks have from 900 to 1000 euro for monthly expenses as well as Croatians and Pollacks. In Serbia 40 percent of the salary goes to food while in Ukraine the total of 54 percent goes to food. The experts say that the high percentage of salary going to food and beverages show us the presence of weak consumer buying power.
In Check Republic people spend approximately 20 percent of salary on food and in Slovenia less than 17 percent.
More accurate is the information that tells us that people in Serbia spend most money monthly on food, moreover most of it for coffee and milk and least for shampoos and deodorants. Serbians as people enjoy their shopping, and that is why they are so grateful consumers and spenders. It is interesting that people in Serbia care more about quality than price and that makes them selective consumers.
When they go shopping, they mostly visit large supermarkets and hypermarkets and spend approximately 40 euro. The experts say that people usually have that money in their pockets meaning they pay with cash. Lately the use of credit cards increased and we can see many people using them for their transactions.
The government is aware that many families need two incomes to survive a month and for many people clothes, shoes and other activities are not achievable. There are so many children sitting at home because their parents can’t afford to give them even 2 euro for a juice. Also many people stop going to cinemas because it is much cheaper to buy DVD on the street that costs 2 euro than spend 3 times more.
In other countries where people have higher salaries, there is no such problem because the amount of salaries is enough for everything, and even some to be put aside.
In the last few years, the living expenses went up as well as prices of food for approximately 10 percent causing people to spend more. Their salaries remain the same while everything else went up.