Almost half (45%) of Romanians don’t have any savings, whereas the average EU rate for people without any savings amounts to 29%, according to a survey conducted by Ipsos for the Dutch banking group ING.

Germany comes after Romania, with 34% of the people lacking savings for bad days. The top five also includes Turkey (33%), Poland (29%), and the Czech Republic and Italy (27%).

Of the people with savings, most of them saved the equivalent of three monthly salaries or less, according to the survey. Some 52% of the Turks are in this situation, followed by 46% of the Romanians and 41% of Poles and Americans.

As for debts, 57% of Romanians currently have debts, up from 55% in 2016. Most of the debts (28%) stand for consumer credits, followed by credit cards (22%).

The survey results are based on the responses of more than 14,600 participants from Austria, Belgium, Romania, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, Poland, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, UK, US, and Australia.

editor@romania-insider.com