Slovak households spent more rationally in early 2015

Slovak households behaved relatively more rationally in the first quarter of 2015, with the increase of spending on end consumption standing at only 1.5 percent year-on-year, which was less than experts had expected, said the Statistics Office's macroeconomics department general director František Bernadič at a press conference on Friday. This is even more surprising when prevailing deflation and growing employment in Slovakia are kept in mind, said Bernadič. Meanwhile, the savings of Slovak households increased in 1Q15 - by a considerable 13.3 percent year-on-year. "Households appear to be behaving rationally. They don't want to spend everything that they have at their disposal, but in a certain way they're saving for their future instead", said Bernadič. He added that one probable explanation for such behaviour is more pronounced determination to resolve housing issues, with a growth in mortgages indicating this.