Last year, the average Czech household spent 153,193 crowns per person. Consumer spending, which includes spending on food, housing, holidays, health, transport, holidays, culture and education, rose 2.7 percent year on year.
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From family budgets, housing-related expenditures continued to cut the most money, and they continued to grow. Households spent roughly the same as living on food, drink, clothing, and shoes. This follows from data published by the Czech Statistical Office.
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Households continued to spend most of their money on housing, ie rent, water, waste, electricity and gas. These expenditures swallowed 23.6 percent last year and rose by five percent year on year to 36,167 crowns per person living in the household. The rent from the apartment last year amounted to 10,746 crowns, the year before it was 7,429 crowns. However, households spent less money on water and sewerage (16 percent less), minor apartment repairs or gas (both two percent less).
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Expenditure on food and non-alcoholic beverages remains the second most important item with almost a fifth share. Last year, households spent 29,445 crowns per person on them, compared to 28,829 crowns in 2018. Expenditures on bread, dairy products, sugar and confectionery or vegetables increased, while spending on fruit and fats decreased. One tenth of household expenditure last year fell on holidays and culture, another tenth on transport and 6.9 percent on food and accommodation.
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Expenditures on education increased the most last year, by 30 percent year on year. Expenditure growth was also evident in health. Last year, households spent 4,212 crowns per person on medicines, medical devices and outpatient care, which was 8.8 percent more than a year earlier. On the contrary, the decrease is noticeable especially in expenditures for so-called other goods and services, which include expenses for hairdressing services, personal care, but also for insurance. Households spent 3.5 percent more on personal care, but spent eight percent less on insurance.
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There are differences between individual types of households. When statisticians divided households into five groups according to the amount of net income, the average consumption expenditures of households with the lowest incomes amounted to 116,789 crowns and for households with the highest incomes almost doubled 225,671 crowns per person per year.
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Expenditures of one million complete families with children last year fell to 140,230 crowns per person per year from 143,821 crowns the year before. They had lower expenses for clothing, shoes, home furnishings, transport or holidays, while their expenses for food, housing, health and education increased.
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Last year, households of pensioners, of which there are 1.35 million and 21,000 more year-on-year, spent an average of 146,735 crowns per person per year. It was nine percent more than in 2018. The seniors spent more money mainly on recreation and culture, clothing and shoes, meals, apartment equipment and housing, but their expenditures increased in all monitored groups of expenditures.
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Growth in consumer spending slowed last year. In 2018, spending grew by 3.4 percent, the highest rate in recent years. Expenditures in 2016 also grew more significantly than last year, by 2.8 percent. This was the most significant growth since 2007.
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This year’s household spending will undoubtedly reflect the coronavirus crisis, which hit the Czechia in two waves. Due to measures against the spread of covid-19, many employees switched to work from home, pupils and students to distance learning associated with the need to purchase computer equipment, people bought veils and respirators, cultural events were canceled for many weeks, travel was limited.
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