Average household income in Romania up 8.5 pct in Q1 2018, but household expenditure saw similar growth

According to data released on Friday by the National Institute of Statistics (INS), the total monthly average income of the Romanian population per household was RON 3,873, while the total monthly average expenditure per household was RON 3,317, meaning that monthly expenditure accounted for 85.6 percent of the total income.

The share of expenditures in average incomes show an improvement of household budget, as during crisis years the expenditures accounted for over 95 percent of the average household income. Compared to other European countries, however, Romania is not doing very well, as in most EU countries expenditures are no higher than 60 percent of the household income.

INS data shows that the money income was RON 3,505 monthly, on average, per household (RON 1,342 per person) and the in-kind income was RON 368 monthly per household (RON 141 per person).

Salaries and other related income were the most important source of income (64.6 percent of the total household income). Other sources for household income included: social benefits (20.4 percent), agricultural income (1.5 percent), income from independent non-agricultural activities (1.8 percent), property and household asset sale income (0.7 percent).

In-kind income also has an important weight (9.5 percent), mainly the equivalent value of the consumption of agro-food products from own resources (8.2 percent).

The main uses of household expenditure are the consumption of food goods and non-food goods, payment of services and the transfers towards public and private administration and towards the social insurance budgets as taxes, contributions and dues as well as to cover certain needs related to household production (animals and poultry feed, payment for work on household production, products for sowing, veterinary services etc.).

The expenditure on investments, intended for purchasing or building dwellings, purchasing land and equipment required by household production, purchasing shares, etc. has a small weight in the total household expenditure, of only 0.3 percent.

According to the standard classification of consumption expenditure by use, food and non-alcoholic beverages accounted, on average, for 34.3 percent of household consumption in Q1 2018.