Struggle to get to end of the month

NEARLY 60 percent of families in the Balearic islands acknowledge that they have financial difficulty in seeing their way through to the end of the month. A report issued yesterday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), shows that this figure is slightly over and above the national average.
Nevertheless, the Balearics is the region of Spain with the third highest level of outgoings per person, following behind only Navarra and Madrid.
The third quarter of this year witnessed average monthly spending in the Islands reaching 2'171.18 euros per person, a 6.9 percent increase over the same period last year. The national average for this year's third quarter was 1'854.69 euros, a rise of 5.2 percent. According to INE, 16.21 percent of homes in the Balearics have a great deal of financial difficulty in reaching the end of the month (the second highest figure in Spain after the Canary Islands); 18.97 percent manage to hold on until next month's salary arrives with some difficulty, and 24.69 percent with undisputed difficulty. At the other end of the scale, 12.21 percent manage it quite easily and 27.01 percent managed without any difficulty at all.
The study also reported that 34.78 percent of Balearic households are able to dedicate some of their income to savings according to their level of income and expenditure, while 65.92 percent were clear that they were not able to do that. Another aspect of the survey on people's understanding of the current economic climate, discovered that 67.85 percent of families on the Islands believe it is not a good moment to make important household purchases, in contrast to 9.61 percent who believe that yes, it is a good moment, and 22.54 percent who think that it's not a particularly good time, but neither is it all that bad. Research showed that out of the average Balearic monthly spending of 2'171.18 euros, a total of 393.66 went on food, drinks and tobacco. This was the third highest spending in Spain, beaten only by Madrid, with an average of 2'260 euros and Navarre, with 2'233 euros. Families in Extremadura spent the least (1'255 euros a month). The survey also revealed that people are spending more money, and an average family spent 5'330 euros a month, just over five percent more than the same period last year. Twenty percent goes on food, drink and tobacco, the survey said.