ZAGREB, January 2, 2020 - During December 2019, Croatians spent nearly 16 billion kuna, according to figures provided by the Finance Agency (FINA) to the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) on Thursday when the chamber pointed out that spending this December was a billion kuna higher than in December 2018.
During December 2019, FINA processed receipts worth 15.8 billion kuna, and this means that we spent a billion kuna more than in December 2018, says Tomislava Ravlić of the HGK.
This positive trend in spending is a result of the steady rise in wages due to the tax reforms, she explained.
Also, the analysis of the expenditure on Christmas presents shows that two thirds of Croatians spent between 100 and 1,000 kuna on those presents, and one fifth set aside higher amounts of money for that purpose.
As much as 31.5% of those polled spent between 100-500 kuna on Christmas presents for their dearest ones, whereas 31.8% spent between 500 and 1,000 kuna for that purpose, and 20.8% spent more than 1,000 kuna, Ravlić explained.
Also, every tenth respondent says they spent less than 100 kuna on presents in December, and a mere 2.3% of those polled say they have not bought any presents at all.
Broken down by type of recipients of presents, family members top the list (84%) and are followed by those who are described as loved ones (56%) and friends (53%), while the lowest percentage went on business partners (17%).
Broken down by type of goods purchased as presents, cosmetic products top the list (39%), followed by clothes and footwear (35%) and children's toys (31%), the HGK says.
The survey was conducted among 300 respondents in four big cities: Zagreb, Rijeka, Osijek and Split.
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