Crisis-hit Italians adopt more affordable consumer habits: research institute
Xinhua, December 5, 2015 Adjust font size:
Italians are trying to adopt more affordable consumer habits as the country is still coping with the effects of the economic crisis, the Censis research institute said in a report on Friday.
More people have opted for online shopping and sharing economy, which is also known as collaborative consumption, the institute said in its annual report on Italian society.
About 15 million Italians have bought things online this year, among whom nearly 3 million bought food, Censis found.
Participation in the sharing economy was more prevalent among young people, according to the institute. Some 2 million citizens, or 4 percent of Italian population, are using a car-sharing program, with the percentage rising to 8.4 percent among younger generations.
Takeaway businesses in the country registered a boom, increasing by 37 percent since 2009. The number of restaurants, coffee bars, bakeries and ice-cream parlors increased, while boutiques, book shops and butcher shops fell by an average of over 10 percent.
Censis said the growth in the number of takeaway food businesses was due to low start-up costs, the initiative of foreigners with regular residence permit (who in Italy are increasingly moving towards middle-class living conditions) and Italians' eating habits.
Though for the first time in years, Italian families which have seen an increase of their spending capacity outnumbered those seen a decline, nearly 20 percent of households said their incomes were insufficient to cover all expenses.
As many as 96.7 percent of Italians watched television in 2015, Censis said. At the same time, web devices registered growth trends, with more than half Italians regularly using a smartphone and one in four Italians regularly using a tablet. There was also a strong rise in the number of citizens who use social media.
According to the report, Italians who have read at least one book during the past year accounted for 51.4 percent of the total population.
Founded in 1964, Censis is a social study and research institute based in Rome. It is supported by several large public and private institutions. Endit