Citizens have an increasingly hard time saving after the financial crisis, a GfK survey on the use of banking services in central and eastern Europe shows.
In Austria, four out of 10 persons have said they will be able to save inthe next 12 months. In other central and eastern European countries thepossibility and wish to save was markedly down already in 2009.
Only six per cent of Bulgarians will be able to save some money over thenext 12 months, whereas in Croatia the percentage is about 25 per cent.
The survey also shows that citizens will rather spend the surplus money thandeposit or invest it.
The main reasons for saving in all countries covered by the survey are tocover costs, pay schooling, for old age, and for vacations.
In most countries, citizens prefer simple and transparent forms of saving,such as purchasing real estate or tying deposits. Some keep the money at homebecause they have lost confidence in banks. All more sophisticated forms ofsaving and investing are seriously on the decline, according to the survey.
In central and eastern European countries that are in the European Union,four out of five citizens use banking services, against only 50 per cent insome parts of eastern Europe.
In Austria, nearly every person over 15 uses banking services and thesituation is similar in Slovenia. In Croatia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic,Ukraine and Hungary, about 80 per cent of adults use banking services, whereasin Bosnia-Herzegovina, Russia and Serbia the percentage is about 70 per cent.
The survey shows particularly evident steps forward among persons with apermanent job and in the 20-50 demographic. In recent years, the changes aremainly facilitated by the development of communication technology and theincrease in the number of Internet and mobile phone users.
