Inflation and expensive-energy revolutionize consumption and availability. In 2023, purchasing power will fall (-2,800 euros for employees, -2,200 for the self-employed), while the cost of bills and housing will absorb 45.8% of monthly spending. In 2022, because of high energy and inflation, Italian families were forced to burn 41.5 billion of their savings in an attempt to preserve their standard of living. A tenor now besieged by incompressible costs: the share of household expenditure absorbed by expenses for utilities and housing should in fact settle this year on 45.8% of the monthly total. In 2019 the percentage was 35%. This is what emerges from an estimate of the entrepreneurial association Confesercenti. The situation mainly affects lower-middle incomes. For the less affluent families – 40% of the total, equal to about 10.5 million households – fixed costs will be worth about half of the entire monthly expenditure this year (49%), reducing even more the space for other expenses. If we also consider clothing, beverages and food expenditure, the share of the budget occupied by compulsory consumption rises to 77%, leaving less than a quarter – 23% – available for other purposes. The picture of spending habits, however, has changed strongly even for those who have a little more. For 40% of households with an average income, the share of the budget absorbed by bills and household expenses went from 35% in 2019 to 45%, while spending on food and drinks fell from 25 to 23%; that for other expenses suffered a real collapse, falling from 40% to 32%.
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