Over 50% Of Romanian Townspeople To Spend Less For ’09 Winter Holidays – Survey

According to Mednet, the economic crisis also affects Romanians’ plans for the winter holidays, as the average budget earmarked for Christmas and New Year amounts to 1,523 lei (EUR1=RON4.2496), with nearly 52% of respondents saying this sum is lower than last year’s.

Respondents said they are willing to spend an average RON556.13 on food products specific to winter holidays, with 47.6% of them saying this sum is lower than last year’s.

Non-food products specific to winter holidays, such as Christmas trees, ornaments, clothing and footwear, weigh less in people’s spending budget, with townspeople earmarking an average RON321.09 for this type of products, which, 45.3% of respondents said is lower than last year’s.

The survey also indicates townspeople plan to scrap several products which they bought last year, such as Christmas tree ornaments (70.4% of respondents), Christmas trees (56.5%), spirits (40.9%), cookies/cakes (32.7%), as well as white and brown goods, clothing and footwear, jewelry, cosmetics, perfumes and luxury products. Respondents also said they plan to buy fewer and cheaper products such as meat, vegetables and fruit.

According to the survey, nearly 10% of respondents earmarked an average RON1,312.50 for trips during the winter holidays, while 47.3% of them earmarked an average RON346.28 for leisure activities during the winter holidays, which, they said, is lower than last year’s.

Nearly 50% of respondents earmarked an average RON526.82 for gifts, which, they said is lower than last year’s. However, 81.4% of them plan to buy gifts for the winter holidays.

The most popular gifts among respondents target clothing/footwear (54.5% of respondents), cosmetics/perfumes (37.4%), toys (30.6%), chocolate/coffee (20.4%), books (17.4%) and jewelry/watches (14.8%) etc.

Over half of respondents, or 52.6%, said they are not used to earmarking a certain budget for the winter holidays, only 33.4% said they do that on a regular basis, while 12.9% of them said they would earmark a certain budget for this year.

However, 45.4% of respondents said they are saving money for the winter holidays, while 6.1% of them plan to borrow money for this year’s winter holidays.

The survey was conducted during November 16 – 23 on a representative sample for capital city Bucharest and towns with over 100,000 inhabitants. The survey polled by telephone 854 people aged 18 to 65 and the error margin is of ±3.35%.