40% of Cypriots ‘just getting by’

Forty per cent of Cypriots are “just getting by”, a poll presented on Tuesday showed.

The same poll, carried out by the Cypronetwork company and commissioned by the Cyprus consumers’ union, said 30 per cent are “struggling” economically, while 30 per cent of people said they are “comfortable” with their income.

This figure is nine per cent higher than the same survey carried out a year ago, in which just 21 per cent of respondents said they were comfortable with their income.

Despite these people feeling more comfortable financially, they did say they had noticed price increases in various sectors of the economy.

A total of 56 per cent of respondents said they had seen prices of food and basic goods increase over the last few years, 44 per cent said the same about electricity prices, 32 per cent about clothing and footwear, and 31 per cent about water.

But the data did contradict itself in that 63 per cent of respondents said their income has “remained the same”, 17 per cent it has either decreased or “decreased a lot”, and 17 per cent said it has either increased or “increased a lot”.

Cypronetwork chairman Loukas Aristodemou said that while 63 per cent of people say their income has remained the same, “if the effects of inflation are taken into account, there is a 10 to 15 per cent decrease in income”.