Half of Spanish households have barely enough money to cover their basic needs, according to a new study by Nielsen, a market research company.
48pc of Spanish residents can only meet the costs of housing, food, and other basic necessities, finds the Nielsen study looking at the impact of inflation on consumer spending.
That means that half of all resident have no money to spend on luxuries like holidays or second homes.
It sounds bad, but then again, Spain actually does better than the EU average, where 52pc of people can only afford the cost of housing, food, and clothes, with nothing left over.
71pc of Spanish residents say they would have to meet a rise in the cost of food by trimming spending on other basic necessities like clothes, compared to 57pc in Germany, 72pc in France and 64pc in Italy. In Greece, where the economy is imploding, the figure was 87pc.
If the cost of food goes up, Spanish residents say they will respond by cutting budgets for eating out in 66pc of cases, buying clothes in 58pc of cases, and reduced spending on leisure in 44pc of cases.
Mike Bamford says:
“That means that half of all resident have no money to spend on luxuries like holidays or second homes”. On the other hand this means that 50% of the Spannish DO have to spend on luxuries like holidays or second homes. What percentage of residents of other western european countries have money for a second home? A lot less than 50% I’d wager.
Mark Stücklin says:
Mike, I think the point is that 50pc have just enough to cover their basic needs. The other 50pc have more spending power, but that spending power will only stretch to second homes in a tiny fraction of cases.