Positive Changes in Financial Well-Being in Hungary

Compared to recent years, the financial situation of Hungarians has improved in several respects: the number of those who have some money left at the end of the month has increased and the number of those who have no savings has decreased, according to a representative survey commissioned by Provident Financial Ltd.'s parent company International Personal Finance (IPF) and conducted by Kantar in June 2024.

In comparison with data collected a year earlier, there are more people who can put some money aside at the end of the month and more people who feel confident in their finances.

Almost a quarter of Hungarians (23.5%) have some, or even larger amount of, money left in their pockets at the end of the month. Within this, 20.5% of those surveyed can put aside a decent amount of their monthly income, while 3% can put aside a larger amount. These figures are better than last year, when the 2023 survey showed that 19.7% had money left over at the end of the month, with a split of 17% and 2.7% respectively. 

One in three Hungarians (33.3%) were able to save some money each month, with the overall proportion falling slightly, by only 0.2% compared to the previous year. Some 11% put aside a predetermined amount, while 22.1% can save a variable amount of money at any time.

Provident's research also found that 53.4% of those surveyed had not taken out a loan in the past year, 2.3 percentage points lower than a year earlier, which could be explained by the fact that more people were able to save. While just over half of middle-aged people (35-54) said they would not borrow, if possible, this proportion among older people (55-75) was almost two-thirds. The survey also shows that those who still have money left at the end of the month are also reluctant to borrow.

Of those who did borrow, most (32.8%) turned to their families for help, with the highest proportion of those who did so turning to their parents (12.8%), while only 13.8% used loans from financial institutions, 1.6% more than a year earlier.

According to the survey data, 52.3% of respondents feel confident in their knowledge of financial products, while 46% feel uncomfortable in this area, a slight improvement from last year, when 50.1% felt confident and 47.6% were unsure.

However, there are significant differences not only in terms of age but also in terms of regional distribution. According to the survey data, 18–34-year-olds had the highest (54.4%) and 55+ year olds the lowest (47.4%) levels of financial confidence, and while 61.3% of people living in a large city felt they had a good knowledge of financial services, the figure was only 41.8% in small towns.

Commenting on the survey results, the CEO of Provident Financial Ltd., Viktor Boczán, stressed that “as a responsible lender, we are also working to improve the financial awareness of Hungarians." The CEO added that "our strategic partnership with the Hungarian Interchurch Aid has the key objective of promoting financial awareness among disadvantaged groups, primarily through financial education. Provident is also committed to strengthening the financial literacy of the retired generation, which is why we have launched the Retirement Academy education program to reach and embrace a generation for whom financial education has been less accessible in the past, thus ensuring up-to-date knowledge in the world of modern finance.”