Belarussians began to spend less on food, but more on group meals. How have our expenses changed?

Belarusians started to spend less money on food and services, but increased their spending on utility bills. This follows Belstat's data on household consumer spending in the third quarter of 2018. FINANCE.TUT.BY examined the evolution of our expenses.

In the first quarter, Belarussians spent 40.8% of their income on purchases. In the second quarter, the percentage decreased by 0.9 percentage points. And in the third on the products, we started to drop by 2.5 percentage points. Compared to the third quarter of 2017, the cost of food of Belarussians decreased by 2.7 percentage points.

There was no significant change in our diet in the third quarter compared to the second. The only thing to do is that in July, August and September, we ate more fruits and vegetables than in April, May and June.

In the third quarter, Belarussians spent an average 25.2% of their spending on services and a year earlier, 23.9%. For example, expenditures for utilities have increased significantly – up to 6.1% (5.9% a year ago) and up to 1.6% for medical services (1.2% a year ago).