While some countries spend more on housing and utilities, Croats spend much more on food.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 22nd of November, 2017, household costs across the European Union accounted for a sum of 2400 billion euros (or 16.4% of the total GDP) in 2016.
Croatian households spend 30% of their budget on food, and 16% for various housing and utility costs, whereas in Western countries, less than 10% is spent on food, and up to 30% on utilities.
A quarter of the home budget of European families goes on housing costs, which includes utilities, home repairs and regular overall property and land maintenance. The highest housing costs were recorded in Denmark, Finland and the United Kingdom, where for every one 100 euros spent, 30 euros go on housing costs. Večernji list writes that Eurostat published the data on the basis of average prices in 2016.
The last data recorded for Croatia relates to the year 2014, and according to that, Croatia is in a line of countries which spend the least on housing expenditures, for which Croatian households spend a mere 16 percent of the family budget, making the country the third lowest EU member when it comes to that, after Malta and Lithuania.
According to the same analysis, Croatian households spend on average 30% of their budget on food, followed closely by a candidate for EU membership - Serbia, where 23 percent of the family budget goes on food, followed then by Lithuanian families who spend about 20% on food. Households of the most developed members of the EU allocate just 7 to 10 percent of the family budget for food, but the cost of living is the biggest single expenditure in those nations.
In the last decade, housing costs have seen the most significant increase in expenditures - with a share of 22.7% in 2006, to 24.5% in 2016. Croatian spending for housing costs rose by 3 percent - from 13 percent to 16 percent from 2004 to 2014, which is the last ten years for which data is available. For most European countries, household expenditures are monitored every year, but the Croatian DZS is unable to afford such a luxury.
"It's very interesting research that unfortunately isn't regulated by the EU regulations. We intend to implement it every other year, but because of the high cost it's usually the first area we save on, "explains DZS director Marko Krištof.
''This year, the situation is somewhat better, our budget has been increased for the first time since 2007, if we're excluding the cost of the census, so data on household spending surveys is currently being collected. The next budget is higher again, but the increase is mainly related to preparation for the population census for 2021,'' stated Krištof for Večernji list.
Translated from Poslovni.hr
