More than 40% of Romanians will spend 10% to 30% less this holiday season than last year, according to a survey conducted by CEC Bank in partnership with FinZoom.ro. Meanwhile, 27% said they have a similar budget to last year, while 23% plan to spend more.

In terms of budget, 30.5% of respondents said they planned between RON 500 and RON 1,000, while a quarter of those surveyed will spend less than RON 500. About 20% will spend between RON 1,000 and RON 1,500, with only smaller percentages planning higher budgets.

For more than half of those surveyed, the main spending for the holidays will be on food, for 42% of respondents on gifts, and just under 5% will allocate most of the money for vacations. But even for food, 70% of respondents have allocated a budget of less than RON 600.

For other categories of holiday expenses, almost 50% of the respondents will allocate less than RON 300, over 31% will budget between RON 300 and RON 600, and about 13% between RON 600-1,200. Just over 5% said they would allocate amounts of over RON 1,200.

Financial comparator FinZoom conducted the survey online at the request of CEC Bank on a sample of around 1,200 internet users in Romania. 53% of the respondents are employees, 75% live in urban areas, and over 27% have higher education.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

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