With wages growing more slowly or not at all relative to prices or under pressure from job losses, more and more families are cutting back on non-essential expenses to cover bills, taxes and food.
In more and more families, the monthly budget has become an accounting exercise. After paying maintenance, energy, rates and taxes, many Romanians find that they are left with less and less money for the things that, until recently, were part of everyday life.
In the conditions where wages are increasing very little in relation to the ever-higher prices or even not at all, under the pressure of job losses and pension freezes, Romanians are starting to give up not only vacations or larger investments for the house, but ordinary services, in order to manage to live from one month to the next.
The data of a survey carried out by the CFA Romania Association in March and quoted by Antena 3 show that the pressure on people’s pockets is beginning to be reflected directly in consumption. In February, the consumption of services was 6.2% lower than in the same period last year, a sign that many households choose to save money for expenses they can no longer postpone, such as bills for essential services.
Among the first affected are hair salons and beauty centers, which register a decrease of 22.3%, a sign that many people prefer to give up or reduce the frequency of visits to such places.
In the HoReCa sector, consumption fell by 12.1%, which shows that outings, family meals or weekends away from home have become less frequent.
Even services that seemed mundane, such as laundries or dry cleaners, began to be bypassed. In this sector, the decrease was 5.9%, a sign that people are trying to reduce any cost that can be postponed or replaced.
The change is also felt in the shops. Retail trade saw some of its weakest sales in years in February, falling 6.2%.
But the difference can be seen, first of all, in the shopping basket: if last year a family spent around 550 lei for weekly shopping, this year the same family is trying to fit in around 500 lei. At first glance, the difference may seem small, but it means almost 200 lei in a single month.
Fear of the future
Behind these changes is the fear of what is to come. The macroeconomic confidence indicator carried out by the CFA Romania Association shows that 47% of economists expect inflation to continue to rise over the next 12 months.
At the same time, 86% of the survey participants anticipate a depreciation of the leu in relation to the euro.
Estimates point to an average exchange rate of 5.1303 lei to the euro over the next six months and 5.1644 lei over a one-year horizon, meaning price pressure could continue.
In parallel, the economic growth forecast for 2026 has been cut to just 0.7%, which means public debt could reach 63% of GDP, while economists also estimate that the price of oil could rise to $103 a barrel in the next 12 months, which could bring further increases in the chain, from transport to basic products.
For many Romanians, all these figures translate into a simple reality: before anything else, the bills must be paid. And when income lags behind, the first to disappear are those expenses that made life a little more comfortable and helped us keep our morale high.
