By Jean Christou
CYPRIOTS are spending every penny that they earn and more money goes on cars than food, the latest five-year household survey reveals.
Average annual expenditure clocks in at £12,442 against an average annual income of £12,660.
One fifth of household income goes on housing, 19 per cent on transport, less than 19 per cent on food, seven per cent on clothing and footwear and on furnishing and household equipment, almost six per cent on education, the same amount on leisure and entertainment, five per cent on health and four per cent on hotels and restaurants.
Although income has increased across the board by 28 per cent, the gap between rich and poor has not changed over the five years since the last survey for 1990-1991.
The poorest 20 per cent of households in Cyprus have an income of less than £5,000 and the poorest 10 per cent less than £3,000. The better-off 20 per cent have an income of more than £18,000 and the top 10 per cent earned more than £23,000. Half of all households have an income of over £11,000, but households in urban areas spend more, £13,497 compared to rural dwellers who spend £10,422. They also have a lower income level than their city counterparts.
Spending, however, has increased by 55 per cent across the board, report said.
The biggest expenditure for most families was housing, electricity and gas, accounting for 19.9 per cent of expenditure, followed by the purchase and operation of cars at 18.97 per cent, and groceries a little less 18.5 per cent.
Around 80 per cent of Cypriot families now own a car, one in three households owns two cars, and one out of every 15 has three or more cars. This figure is up from one in 22 in the previous survey, bringing total expenditure on cars up from 14 per cent in 1990-1991.
The amount spent on food, drink and tobacco on the other hand has dropped from 21 per cent in the previous survey.
Since the mid-eighties, however, Cypriot households have more dishwashers (28 per cent), computers (13 per cent), microwave ovens (19 per cent), and mobile phones (19.5 per cent).
Over 97 per cent of Cypriots now own a TV and 67 per cent have videos, up from 11 per cent ten years ago. Some 20 per cent also have air conditioning.
The survey was based on a sample of 2,645 households over a 12 month period, 1.3 per cent of the island’s total urban and rural households.
