This is how much pensioners spend on shopping. You can see the “thirteen” effect
In April, pensioners’ spending on shopping increased by almost 5.3%. year to year. However, the burden on the wallet with food expenses has decreased significantly, which is related to the payment of the 13th pension.
The Monthly Purchases Index for the retiree profile was in April this year. PLN 521.40. Calculated on a single day basis, this means that regular food and maintaining basic hygiene for a senior citizen costs an average of PLN 17.38 per day. In March, shopping expenses amounted to PLN 515.70, which means that in the previous month the senior had to spend PLN 5.70 more at the checkout. In turn, a year ago it was PLN 495.20, i.e. PLN 26.20 less.
This change means that personal inflation in senior households is now 5.29%. on an annual basis, which is clearly higher than the official April reading of the Central Statistical Office (GUS) – 3.2%. year to year.
13. retirement “affects the sense of stability”
At the same time, however, the burden of purchases on income has decreased. The key here was the effect of the 13th pension, which was paid in April. In March this year with a standard benefit, the share of basic purchases in the pensioner’s budget was 30.16%. In April, this indicator decreased to 15.55%. This is a lower value than in the case of a single person, whose burden is 21.36%, or a family of four with a rate of 23.49%. These data show how significant an impact one-off social transfers have on the real purchasing power of older people.
– April showed in practice how the payment of the 13th pension affects seniors’ sense of financial stability. Due to the doubling of income, the burden of expenses on food and hygiene decreased to 15.55%, which allows for much greater freedom in managing the remaining funds. It can also be said that this type of benefits restore seniors’ sense of dignity and security, which they lack in the remaining months of the year. This is how seniors would like to feel with each payment from ZUS, because with a standard pension amount their situation is much more difficult than in the case of singles or families – comments Michał Tomaszkiewicz, co-author of the report from the PolskieRadio24.pl website.
Index of Monthly Shopping (IMZ) is a cyclical report based on Michał Tomaszkiewicz’s own methodology, prepared for PolskieRadio24.pl in cooperation with UCE RESEARCH and WSB Merito Universities. Unlike inflation indices (CPI) provided by the Central Statistical Office, IMZ does not measure the general price level in the economy, but shows the nominal cost of purchasing a specific set of products (FMCG) necessary to operate for a month. The basis for the calculations are data from the “Retail Store Price Index” report (authored by UCE RESEARCH/WSB Merito), based on the analysis of 104,000 price readings in over 48,000 retail outlets. The retiree profile presented above assumes an elderly person running a single household, whose purchasing decisions are based on culinary tradition, cooking at home from scratch and economical use of resources (100% use of food), while taking into account specific expenses for medicines (supplements, painkillers, etc.). The costs of the basket were related to the lowest net pension.
