The market research company GFK presented recently the results from a survey that dealt with Central and Eastern Europe population is attitude towards saving money and investments in 2009. It turned out that it hadn’t been that easy to save money through the last year, compared to 2005. The reasons could obviously be found in the consequences of the financial and economic crisis. People now prefer stability to risk and risky investments. Only 6% of the Bulgarian participants in the survey said that they might have the chance to save money through the next 12 months. Different reasons for saving became an interesting moment in the 2009 survey, compared to those in 2005. Austrians, Croatians and Slovaks saved for a car, a house, holidays and their old age in 2005, while Bulgarians, Romanians, Poles, Ukrainians and Russians saved for house repairs or equipment, medical treatment or just wanted to have money for the future. The situation changed in 2009 and there were almost no differences between various countries. The saving ability was rapidly going down and the main moment then was the savings’ security. Mrs. Tanya Tosheva from GFK says:
“I can point out three main reasons that motivate the Bulgarians to save money. First comes the majority of the interviewed, who point out “the possibility to buy some stuff later”. That means that I want to have spared money when I decide to buy something bigger later. Almost 40% of the Bulgarian population, which accounts to 7.5 mln. people, save money with that thought. The second reason declared for saving is the future of children and their education. Then third comes the traditional for the Bulgarians reason: “to have money for repairing my house or apartment”.
However, there are significant differences between different states, as far as saving products that are used are concerned. We are talking about bond investments, investment funds saving or mortgage-backed securities. These saving forms are not developed in Bulgaria yet and relatively few people invest in such products. They are attractive to only 3% of the population and are usually used by economists or people with a good economic understanding, who work in such spheres and are well acquainted with the way they operate. These people usually earn more and have bigger possibilities to save through investing money in investment funds, shares or securities. Mrs. Tosheva adds:
“The average Bulgarian prefers the savings book or the time deposit that has become modern here for the past 2 or 3 years. Real estate purchase is also a reason for saving money in Bulgaria. Different investment schemes are considered to be more suitable and attractive ways of saving money in other countries. But I would like to underline that a stagnation tendency was observed in developed countries’ investment products in 2009 too.”
The survey says that at the moment 13% of the Bulgarians use saving products, most of them deposits. The data also shows that many people in Central and Eastern Europe have their doubts as far as financial institutions are concerned. 11 to 20% of the questioned people keep their savings at home in more than a half of the surveyed countries, including Bulgaria. This percentage appears to be even higher in Serbia and Ukraine, where it varies between 51 and 65%. However, only 10% of the Poles keep their money at home. And here is another fact – more and more Bulgarians consider life insurance to be significant one. 28% of the questioned people thought so in 2009, while in January 2010 they were already 34%.
English version: Zhivko Stanchev
