Analytics, Banks, Financial Services, Latvia, Quality of life, Society

Of the polled people, 27% said their financial situation had improved somewhat and 4% reported significant improvement. 

Meanwhile, 43% of respondents in the survey said that their households' financial situation remained unchanged during the outgoing year. 

Respondents in the age group of 18 to 24 year-olds were more likely to report improvement, with 39% of respondents in this group saying that their financial situation improved somewhat and 9% reporting significant improvement. Respondents of the pre-retirement age, or 55 to 63 year-old people, were least likely to feel financial improvement, with only a fifth of them reporting a slight financial improvement.

The survey shows that people with medium-high and high income were more likely to report an improvement of their financial situation, and the financial situation of people with low income were more likely to deteriorate even further this year. 

For the third consecutive year, rising costs of food, housing and transport had left the most negative impact on households' finances, according to the Swedbank survey. 

In Kropa's words, respondents were critical about the effect  recent legislative changes have left on their households' budgets, saying that the new regulations have only increased expenses related to the purchase of excise goods, government and municipal services, transport, housing and food. 

"Although people's monthly income has been gradually rising, the inevitable costs of food, housing and transport have increased as well. Most people therefore cannot enjoy the income growth and are fully aware of the cause of the additional expenses," Kropa said. 

SKDS pollster conducted the survey for Swedbank in December 2019, interviewing 1,005 residents of Latvia, aged 18 to 75.