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International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Thursday, 25.04.2024, 05:35

SEB survey: Consumption in Estonia at same level as last year at end of summer

BC, Tallinn, 21.09.2020.Print version
An analysis of consumer behavior conducted by SEB among Estonian people in August shows that consumption reached the same level by the end of summer as at the same time last year, reported LETA/BNS.

The tourism and entertainment sectors still exhibited a downward trend in August by 40% and 7%, respectively. Homeware, catering and health service companies as well as retailers of clothing and electronics saw some good growth, however, according to SEB.


"We can see from our data that Estonian people are still happy to go out and the trend of staying at home was no longer popular at the end of summer. Expenditure by the people of Estonia on entertainment has grown even more, only remaining 10% below last year's level," Lennart Kitt, head of Baltic client analysis and data science at SEB, said. 


Kitt noted that the decline in tourism, however, has neither accelerated nor slowed down over the past few months. He said that the highest possible level has likely been achieved in tourism, and people are hesitant to consume or travel any more than that.

Reduced interest in travelling is also corroborated by SEB data which shows that Estonians' expenditures in all foreign states have rather declined, albeit less so in Finland, Latvia and Lithuania.


"In addition to reduced travelling, the trend which has seen Estonian consumers use less cash also continues," Kitt said, adding that SEB customers' use of cash has declined 10%.


Figures in e-commerce remain strong, which proves that the forced transition to digital services in early spring was a positive experience for many and the habits acquired during the period will persist at least among a share of the population, according to Kitt.


Estonians used 25% less cash in March while 30% less pension was withdrawn from ATMs in April and the volume of transactions dropped 40%. The use of cash gradually began growing again in May, nonetheless remaining at a 10% lower level in recent months compared with last year






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