Analytics, Baltic, Banks, Financial Services, Society

The survey showed that Estonians feel most financially secure. In Estonia, 45% of respondents said they were satisfied with their current financial situation, considering income, expenses and liabilities. In Lithuania, 24% were satisfied with their financial situation while in Latvia the rate was just 22%. Latvia also had the highest rate of people unhappy with their current financial situation - 46%, as opposed to 37% in Lithuania and 27% in Estonia.

More than 66% of Latvians would remain without any means of subsistence upon losing their main source of income. A large number of people (39%) have no savings that they could draw upon in case they lost their jobs, and 17% had savings that would last only for a month at best.

As to sufficiency of their income, 48% of respondents in Latvia said their income was sufficient to buy food and clothes, and they even could put some money aside but could not afford to make any major purchases - to buy a fridge or a TV set, for example, right away. The number of respondents, who said they could only afford to buy first necessities, and the number of those, who said they even did not have enough money to buy food, has decreased somewhat.

Most of those, who said they could not afford to buy even food, were respondents older than 64 years, respondents with elementary education and the jobless as well as people with net monthly income below EUR 260. Only one% of respondents in Latvia said they could afford to buy anything they wanted.

Although the average wage has increased year-on-year in all three Baltic states, including by 8.7% in Latvia, the number of Latvians displeased with their financial situation has grown from 41% in 2016 to 46% this year.

The categories of respondents feeling most financially vulnerable are men, people aged 45-55 years, respondents with secondary and elementary education, the jobless and people with low income as well as residents of the Latgale province in eastern Latvia.

According to SEB Banka's board member Arnis Skapars, the most alarming fact is that nearly a half of the Baltic population have no savings at all or their savings would only last a month at best, if they lost their main source of income.

"The worst situation is in Latvia where 39% of people do not have any savings and another 17% have savings that would last barely a month. The situation in Lithuania is slightly better - 17% could live off their savings for a month, but 29% do not have any savings at all. The best situation is in Estonia where 35% have savings that would last for three months or more. At the same time, 13% of Estonians have savings that would last only for a month, and 21% have no savings at all," Skapars said.

The survey was carried out in fall this year, and more than 1,000 people aged 18-74 years were interviewed in each of the three Baltic states.