- cross-posted to:
- europe@feddit.de
- cross-posted to:
- europe@feddit.de
EU citizens are not doing well when it comes to financial literacy. Nearly half lack an understanding of basic financial concepts, including inflation.
A third of Europeans do not understand how inflation works, according to a survey by Eurobarometer. The same survey revealed only 18% of EU citizens were able to show a high level of financial literary.
According to the survey, 65% of EU citizens are aware that, in times of positive inflation, the purchasing power of their money decreases, meaning they can buy less than they could before with the same amount of money.
Lack of knowledge about inflation could be seen as concerning
In October 2022, the annual inflation in the EU reached levels not seen before in the previous four decades at 11.5%. While the rising cost of living was the most pressing worry for 93% of Europeans at that time, apparently a third of EU citizens do not know how inflation affects their lives.
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The best performers were the Netherlands (43%), Denmark (40%), Finland (40%) and Estonia (39%) where about four in 10 respondents display a high level of financial knowledge.
Romania and Portugal reported the worst scores in high levels of financial knowledge at 13% and 16%, respectively.
Inflation is not exactly a new concept, and not that difficult to understand. I
Ask 10 economists if inflation is beneficial or detrimental to an economy and see how many answers you get.
Sure, it’s good to know that “you likely can’t afford as much in periods of inflation” but that really doesn’t tell you much. It certainly tells you nothing that you really need to know like what you can do about it.
What a straw man. The question is: what is inflation? Not: is inflation beneficial or detrimental.? The latter is indeed a more subtle question, but that’s
No, the question was how financially literate are Europeans. Hence the headline: How financially literate are Europeans? Not very - but who knows most?
And my answer is still- it’s basically impossible for most people, if anyone, to be financially literate in 2024.
Because that’s an opinion question. Very different to ‘what is inflation?’
This isn’t even true though. The vast majority will agree that a little bit of inflation is good, deflation is very bad, and hyperinflation is essentially cataclysmic.