Poll: Two-thirds of households struggle to make ends meet

Prague, Oct 29 (CTK) - More than two thirds of Czechs say they find it hard to make ends meet, while 30 percent say they do not have financial problems, according to an October poll carried out by the Public Opinion Research Centre (CVVM), the results of which have been made available to CTK.

This is the worst result since 2002 when the poll was conducted for the first time, CVVM said.

"Compared with the poll from October 2011, the situation has deteriorated considerably as the percentage of those who struggle to make ends meet has risen by nine percentage points, their income staying unchanged," CVVM said.

Problems are most often stated by women, people with elementary and secondary education without a school leaving certificate, pensioners, the unemployed, housewives and women on maternity leave and left-wing supporters.

The poll has also revealed that 56 percent of Czechs consider their households "neither rich, nor poor." Nearly one third of respondents said their household was rather poor and seven percent said it was very poor.

On the other hand, five percent of respondents said they considered their household rather rich.

The share of households that consider themselves poor is the highest since 2003.

The poll has also shown that a vast majority of households manage to satisfy their basic needs with their incomes, while about 11 percent of respondents have difficulties to cover their basic needs.

The poll was conducted among 1,025 people over 15 at the beginning of October.