Fifteen percent of families have already started cutting spending. Most often on consumer goods and food. In March, almost twice as many people considered saving. About sixteen percent of households now also refuse to visit restaurants and cultural events.
“We had to cancel the planned reconstruction of the cottage, it was not a completely necessary item. And we canceled the holiday, “says Jakub Charvát, who works as a sales representative and supplies equipment to medical facilities. Although his family’s financial situation has not changed in recent months, he has decided to save.
“Money is probably there, but a lot of a factor is the factor of fear, so if it is not a necessary thing, then one can deny it,” he added.
Those who have lost their jobs due to the current crisis save the most, and according to the survey, there are about two hundred thousand of them. Not all of them have already registered with employment offices.
“For the time being, some temporary measures are in force, such as a moratorium on deferral of payments, but this will expire in October, at the end of the year, rent protection, so these things are coming together and will worsen the situation. Until then, unemployment is likely to rise in the coming months and more people will find themselves without income, so the main thing is unfortunately still waiting for us, “points out David Borges, an analyst at People in Need.
However, the interest in the help of non-profit organizations is already increasing. For example, in People in Need they expanded the services of the debt help line. Now people can call every weekday.
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Every twentieth has major problems
About five percent of Czechs, or about four hundred thousand people, now have major financial problems. These are mainly two groups – employees and entrepreneurs from directly affected sectors such as tourism and those who had financial problems before the epidemic.
For example, Josef Pašek from Cheb was unlucky that he fell into both mentioned risk categories. He has been living as a masseur for fifteen years. However, due to health problems, he found himself in a long-term incapacity for work a year and a half ago. In addition, the already complicated situation was complicated by debts that he did not even know about, it was the insolvency of his previous girlfriend.
After deducting debts, he received seven thousand crowns a month. But he had to pay rent and electricity from them. He had about 750 crowns a month to live on. Saved at that moment, he had nothing left. Just before the end of his incapacity, he hoped to return to work. But at that time a pandemic came.
He was not entitled to a state contribution and did not receive help from the authorities either. Friends and charity helped. “Thanks to the collection, they also helped to pay the rent for the rent so that I would not have to move out,” said Pešek, who believes that he will return to his work soon.
People over the age of sixty and entrepreneurs also have problems
However, the number of those who find it more difficult to get on with the family budget has also increased. Especially among people over sixty. However, they are not to blame for the economic downturn, but rather for rising food prices and concerns about the future in general.
“It is interesting that the Czechs are not pessimistic yet, it is not entirely typical for us that they did not succumb to depression, that they still live in the expectation that we have the worst behind us, but that the consequences will not be as bad as macroeconomic scenarios show,” the director intends. services for the financial sector KPMG Czech Republic Mojmír Hampl.
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But many entrepreneurs and sole traders have problems. For example, due to closed restaurants, sales also fell to their suppliers. For example, the trade in Italian delicacies and its own production of mozzarella due to the coronavirus pandemic lost mainly restaurant orders; his turnover fell by about twenty percent.
On the other hand, the closed restaurants in the store helped him surprisingly. “People started cooking more at home. On the one hand we lose, on the other hand we gain. That’s life, “explains Mozzarellart co-owner Marco D´Amelj Melodia. “We buy a little less, but we still buy,” says one of the customers.
In addition, the company had savings ready for a similar crisis situation. Even the fall in income does not currently threaten her.
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