IISEPS — Independent Institute of Socio-Economic and Politycal Studies

WHAT DOES POPULATION THINK ABOUT ITS EXPENSES

The polling data show that the expenditure pattern of the population is undergoing positive changes. In particular, running costs for groceries and apartment are decreasing. As it goes from Table 1, expenses for groceries have gone down fourfold and costs for apartment – 6.7-fold over the past two years. At the same time, expenses for leisure and domestic electric appliances as well as for education are going up. Although this growth is not very high, such change in the expenditure pattern can be recognized as positive.

Table 1. Distribution of answers to the question "How was the income in your family allocated in the past year?", %

Variant of answer	03'04	06'06 (2)
Groceries	36.3	32.3
Apartment costs (public utilities included)	31.0	24.3
Necessities	9.1	9.5
Healthcare (expenses for medicines included)	8.2	8.3
Leisure (expenses for vacation included)	3.5	5.1
Domestic electric appliances (TV set, vacuum cleaner, PC, etc.)	2.6	5.1
Transport (expenses for gas for car included)	4.3	4.9
Education	3.0	4.1
Other	2.0	3.8

In general, the expenditure pattern of population still cannot be considered optimal. The Table 1 shows that running costs for groceries and apartment presently make 56.6%. (This figure is close to the average figure in Table 2 presenting answers to a direct question about these expenses.) Adding up expenses for the necessities, healthcare and transport will make the amount of urgent needs totaling to 80% which almost doesn’t leave free resources, i.e. chances to invest for the perspective.

Table 2. Distribution of answers to the question "What part of your family’s income do you spend for groceries and public utilities?", %

Variant of answer	%
Below 10%	2.7
From 10% to 30%	11.5
From 30% to 50%	37.6
From 50% to 80%	34.0
Over 80%	7.4
DA/NA	6.8
In average	52.0

Table 3 shows the data about expenses of the population. Thus, over 55% of respondents just can buy the minimum of groceries and clothes (almost 15% can hardly afford even this). Only 30% of respondents can afford high-quality groceries and clothes. Only 40% can afford buying basic electric appliances. High-quality modern electric appliances are available for 12.4% of respondents. Finally, only 1.2% of the polled can afford a new car and another 30.7% - a second-hand car. All the rest cannot afford even this. Slightly more than 6% of respondents said that they have possibilities to purchase an apartment so as to improve their living conditions due to many-year savings or with bank credits.

Alongside, nearly 30% of respondents don’t have such a possibility despite urgent need in lodging. In other words, housing problem is still far from being settled in Belarus.

Table 3. Distribution of answers to the question "What items can you afford buying?", %

Variant of answer	%
Sometimes I don’t have money for cheap groceries and clothes	14.9
Only basic groceries and clothes	55.1
Various best quality groceries and brand clothes	25.0
Any groceries and cloths I want	5.0
Basic electric appliances (fridge, TV set, tape recorder, iron)	39.9
Modern electric appliances (HI-FI audio system, DVD player, kitchen unit, home theater, PC, notebook)	11.0
Domestic electric appliances of the latest generation (HI-END video and audio systems)	1.4
Cheap second hand car	22.9
Good but not new car	7.8
New car	1.2
Can’t afford an apartment even though very much need to improve housing conditions	28.9
Apartment (to improve living conditions) with the help of savings over the past few years and/or by means of crediting	6.2
Additional realty (for leisure, for investment of funds)	0.8

To sum up, the expenditure pattern of the Belarusians is not optimal at the moment. Dominating are still the expenses for necessities of the first level. This points out to that the country presently doesn’t ensure the conditions necessary for internal growth of capital.