The expectations of households for 2023 are negative mainly due to the effects of accuracy according to the annual survey of the Institute of Small and Medium Enterprises of GSEVEE on the subject: “Income – Household Expenses 2022”.

According to the survey, households express pessimism about their future financial situation which seems to be mainly fueled by accuracy.

When asked whether the rise in prices has affected respondents’ households to the extent that they are forced to reduce spending on basic needs, 56.7% answered “a lot”, 28.4% “a little”, while 14.8% answered negatively.

In more detail, the following are mentioned:

IME GSEVEE’s annual survey of household income and living expenses (11th in a row) in 2022 was conducted under the conditions created by the multi-month accuracy crisis.

The revaluations mainly in energy that started from mid-2021 and increased exponentially in 2022 due to the unfavorable geopolitical developments spread to almost the entire range of the economy, causing particularly high inflation.

The measures taken by the government to limit the adverse effects of price appreciation on household incomes seem to have been insufficient.

According to the IME GSEVEE survey, the financial situation of households worsened significantly in 2022, while expectations for the future show a negative sign, as more than 1 in 2 households (51.9%) estimate that their situation will worsen in 2023which was observed by the IME GSEVEE survey in 2018.

Apart from the low expectations created by the inflationary crisis, there are two main negative effects of revaluations on households based on the findings of the IME GSEVEE survey.

The first is found in the widening of income inequalities between households with low and middle incomes, and households with high incomes. Specifically, 30.1% of households with an income of up to 30,000 euros stated that their income decreased in 2022, compared to 11% who stated that it increased and 58.9% who stated that it remained stable. On the contrary, 22.7% of households with an income of more than 30,000 euros stated that their income increased, compared to 16.7% who stated that their income decreased and 60.6% who stated that it remained stable.

Given that this effect was also observed in the corresponding IME GSEVEE surveys conducted during the pandemic outbreak, the continuation of this trend begins to take on the dimensions of a structural problem. In fact, it seems that it now strongly affects middle incomes as well, as well almost 6 in 10 households (57.3%) said they needed to make cuts to cover the necessarya significantly increased percentage compared to both the 2021 survey (42.3%), as well as the 2020 (47.9%) and 2019 (48.7%) surveys.

In addition, the percentage of households that appear to be living in conditions of extreme poverty remains consistently high (11.9%).

The second important impact is related to the deterioration presented by the research findings regarding the monthly adequacy of household income.

Specifically, more than 1 in 2 households (52.4%) stated that their monthly income is sufficient for 18 days (average) and is linked to the price increases of both electricity and food items which are for almost 6 out of 10 households the categories that have the biggest negative impact on their income.

Finally, more than 6 out of 10 households stated that the household basket has not contributed to the de-escalation of prices, while 51.1% of households consider the increase in wages and pensions to be the most appropriate measures to deal with price inflation and 28, 6% reduction in taxes and fees on fuel.

Expectations for 2023

Particularly negative expectations are recorded among households for 2023.

Specifically, more than 1 in 2 households (51.9%) estimate that in 2023 their financial situation will worsen, compared to only 15.4% who estimate that it will improve and 29.3% who estimate that it will remain the same .

Households’ pessimism about their future economic situation appears to be fueled mainly by accuracy, as on the question of whether rising prices have affected respondents’ households to the extent that they are forced to cut spending on basic needs, 56.7% answered “a lot”, 28.4% “a little”, while 14.8% answered that it has not affected it.

For almost 6 out of 10 households, the increases in the prices of both electricity and food are the categories that have the biggest negative impact on their income, followed by increases in petrol (28.5%) and heating oil (23 .2%).

Accuracy countermeasures

As the most appropriate measure to deal with the negative effects of accuracy, 51.1% of households consider it to be increase in salaries and pensions and 28.6% the reduction of taxes and fees on fuel.

41.5% of households buy products from household basket compared to 52% who do not use it.

61.6% of households stated that the household basket has not or probably has not contributed to price deflation, compared to 33% who stated that it has or probably has contributed.

Finally, at the time the survey was conducted, households in general evaluated the government’s measures to deal with punctuality particularly negatively. In particular, 47.3% of households evaluated them as insufficient, 23.4% as rather insufficient, while only 17.9% and 7.9% evaluated the measures as rather sufficient and sufficient respectively.