Price increases, in general, are felt by 94 percent of Czechs, with more than a third feeling them very strongly. The research agency Median conducted an August survey for Broker Consulting on a sample of 1,022 respondents. According to the survey, Czechs perceive the highest price increases in food, fuel, and energy.
Three-quarters of Czechs are worried about the impact of inflation on their households.
Half of those affected by the price increase wave have significantly reduced their spending to improve their financial situation, and another 40% intend to do so. Nine out of ten Czechs expect to tighten their belts even more due to inflation.
More than half of the Czechs choose active searching for discounts as their main saving tool, limiting excessive spending on current operations.
“Inflation is not fair by its nature. It mainly affects low-income households with little, if any, savings. This group of households has already had to cut back on their spending or look for other sources of income. Those still planning to save are more likely to belong to higher-income households,” said Helena Horská, chief economist at Raiffeisenbank.
In a worse financial situation, a third of people will significantly or partially reduce the cost of eating out in restaurants, and a quarter will cut back on culture or travel.
Every fourth respondent plans to use this method to cover increased energy costs during the heating season, and another 35% intend to do so.
Another option to improve the financial situation is to increase income through a part-time job or extra income. 26 percent of respondents are planning to do so, while another 23 percent are already supplementing their salary.
“It is necessary to address monthly budgets’ income and expenditure sides. Almost immediately, we can cut back on excess spending that we don’t need to live. The operational increase in income is a bit more complicated. It can be achieved, for example, through temporary earnings,” added Broker Consulting analyst Martin Novák.
Average savings range between CZK 100,000 and CZK 300,000. The exact number of respondents (13 percent) have saved up to CZK 10,000 or a higher amount between CZK 300,000 and CZK 500,000. The savings of respondents who have a higher education or are self-employed are the majority.
The most frequent saving methods are savings accounts (65 percent) and current accounts (64 percent).
In addition, Czechs most often channel their savings into pensions and building savings. In third place are investments in funds, to which savers moved 15 percent of their savings.