LONDON: Many consumers in some of Europe's biggest markets believe their personal financial situation will deteriorate during the coming year, a survey has found.
The Janus Capital Group partnered with Absolute Strategy Research and TNS-BMRB to interview 6,010 adults from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK.
Overall, the resultant index of financial wellbeing peaked at 45 points in the Netherlands, but dropped to -50 points in Spain.
Totals fell by the largest margin, 23 points, in France since a similar study in 2009, and only Germany enjoyed an uptick. Looking ahead, the majority of participants "have revised down their expectations" for the next 12 months, the Janus Capital Group revealed.
A further 28 percent of households anticipated they were likely to be worse off going forward, measured against 24 percent backing this statement in 2009. More specifically, 55 percent of Spanish residences reported their circumstances had depreciated after the last round of research.
Just 29 percent of Germans participants, and 28 percent in the Netherlands, also supported this assertion. Inflation was causing anxiety among 37 percent of the panel, while higher unemployment posted 19 percent, and declining income and rising taxation both reached 15 percent.
Elsewhere, 16 percent of those polled indicated their income was insufficient to support current spending patterns, and 49 percent were "making ends meet".
Approximately 32 percent are managing to save money, and fewer shoppers had borrowings on credit cards or unsecured loans compared with 2009.
"European consumers appear to have lost their optimism for a speedy recovery from recession," said David Bowers, of Absolute Strategy Research."
Rather than the broad-based recovery that was hoped for, European household finances appear on an increasingly divergent trend."
Source: www.warc.com
