PwC study: only one in four Romanian consumers enjoys financial comfort, compared with half of consumers globally

Only 26% of Romanian consumers say they are in a comfortable financial position – meaning they can pay all their monthly bills and still have money left over for savings, holidays, leisure activities, and health and wellbeing expenses – according to PwC’s global Voice of the Consumer 2026 survey. By comparison, one-third of consumers in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and almost half (48%) of consumers globally report being financially comfortable. Romania is therefore moving in the opposite direction to the rest of the region and the global market.

Over the past year, the proportion of Romanians who feel financially secure has decreased by 2.5 percentage points, compared with increases of 5.4 percentage points in CEE and two percentage points globally. At the same time, approximately one in nine Romanians (10.8%) say that their family is struggling to pay its monthly bills, compared with around one in 14 in 2025.

“Consumers are directly feeling the effects of the economic adjustment period Romania is going through. Tax increases, high inflation and the fact that incomes have not kept pace with prices have reduced purchasing power. The decline in retail sales shows that this pressure is leading to more cautious consumer behaviour. Romania is in a different position from the region and the global market, where consumer financial confidence has started to improve,” says Ana Maria Iordache, Consumer Markets Leader, PwC Romania.

According to data from the National Institute of Statistics, the average net salary, adjusted for inflation, was 6.3% lower in June 2026 than in the same month of the previous year, while retail turnover declined by 5.7% in the first seven months of the year compared with the same period in 2025.

About the study
The data was collected between February and March 2026, based on 21,808 responses from 27 countries. The Central and Eastern Europe sample comprises 2,419 respondents from Poland, Romania, Hungary and Ukraine. Romania is represented by 707 respondents.