According to a recent survey conducted by the STEM/MARK agency for the financial group CSOB, over 83% of Czech households are deeply concerned about the current inflation, which has been negatively impacting their budgets for some time now. Rising housing costs, higher food and consumer goods expenses, and substantial depreciation of savings are causing significant distress to Czechs.
Nearly two-thirds of the respondents mentioned the soaring housing costs as the primary issue. At the same time, 59% are worried about savings depreciation, and 58% are struggling with increased consumer goods and services expenses. A quarter of households deal with higher expenditures by dipping into their savings or borrowing money from relatives or friends.
However, a quarter of households do not have any readily available reserves, and 15% cannot save anything every month. If faced with financial difficulties in the future, 45% of people would turn to their savings accounts, 39% to their current accounts, and 31% would withdraw cash from their emergency stash. More than 10% of respondents would consider taking out a loan to tackle their difficult situation.
The survey also revealed that women tend to be more conservative when protecting their savings, preferring savings accounts or even current accounts, but suffering significant losses. In contrast, men, less concerned about inflation, lean towards riskier tools such as stocks, bonds, or investment funds. Homeownership (53%), gold (33%), and savings accounts (30%) are generally considered the best protection against inflation.