What does 2025 hold for the Hungarian population?

Around the same proportion aren’t currently in a position to create better financial conditions for themselves and their families. At the same time two-thirds of respondents said: they regularly do what they can to earn more money, whether it is extra work or overtime. The distribution of respondents is evenly split according to whether they think their financial situation will improve, stagnate or deteriorate in the year ahead. Respondents were also asked about their day-to-day concerns: 60% are worried to a lesser or greater extent about losing their job. High inflation is more worrying for people in rural areas, with 60% saying they find this very worrying in their daily lives – the figure isn’t much lower in cities. Half of respondents in smaller towns and villages are worried about rising energy prices, while this proportion is much lower in cities.

Respondents were also asked which everyday items and product categories they plan to spend less on this year. Only 20% of respondents said that they didn’t plan to spend less on any of the items listed, with the remaining 80% saying that they will save money on eating out (44%), but there was also a significant proportion intending to save on entertainment (35%) and programmes, and on cosmetics and beauty products (30%). 20% of survey participants plan to spend less on food and transport in 2025. From those who wish to spend less on food, more than two-thirds are to do so by being more aware of promotions and buying less of what they are used to. A third of respondents also indicated that they plan to purchase more private label products and pay more attention to unit prices. On average respondents regularly shop in 3 grocery chains (at least monthly).

A quarter of respondents do a major shopping every two weeks or so. 79% of survey participants are highly attentive to promotions on food and chemical products. Half of those surveyed monitor prices in shops and 58% use online promotional leaflets (also), printed promotional leaflets (34%) (also) or apps (38%) (also) to keep track of prices and promotions. Around a third of respondents said they consciously search for special offers or they go to a particular chain store when there are good deals on offer. A third of respondents also tend to buy more of a particular product when it is on sale. Overall, for the year 2025 the responses show a mixed picture in terms of expectations of an improvement or deterioration in the financial situation. We can also see that there are still serious concerns about inflation and the desire to save may make promotions even more important, and it may also improve the positions of private label products. //