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The average monthly income per Romanian household was 4,790 lei in 2019, up 12.7 percent compared to 2018, and total expenditures reached 4,092 lei per month, according to data released by the National Institute of Statistics (INS) on Friday.
The gross average total monthly income was 1,853 lei per person, up 13.6 percent, and the average total expenditure amounted to 1,583 lei per person.
Household money income last year was on average 4,453 lei per month (1,722 lei per person), by 13.6 percent higher compared to 2018, and income in kind was a monthly 337 lei (139 lei per person), by 1.8 percent more than in 2018.
Wages and other related incomes represented the most important source of earnings (68.6 percent of total household income, up by 1.4 percentage points from 2018), and were 15 percent up in nominal terms compared to the previous year.
Also contributing to the total household incomes were social benefits (18.4 pct in 2019, as to 18.7 pct in 2018), incomes from independent non-agricultural activities (2.0 pct in 2019 vs. 2.2 pct in 2018), farming incomes (1.8 pct in 2019 vs.1.9 pct in 2018), and in-kind incomes (7.0 pct in 2019 vs. 7.8 pct in 2018), mainly the equivalent consumption of agricultural products from own resources (5.8 pct in 2019 vs. 6.4 pct in 2018).
According to INS, the main destinations of household expenditure are food, non-foods, services and transfers to public and private administration and to the social security budget, in the form of taxes, contributions and fees, as well as needs related to household production (poultry and animal feed, work payment for household production, sowing products, veterinary services, etc.)
Investment expenditures for the purchase or construction of housing, the purchase of land and equipment necessary for household production, or the purchase of stocks account for just a small share in the total household expenditure (0.6 pct in 2019, and 0.5 pct in 2018).
