Recent research carried out by the European Commission has discovered that 54% of Spaniards admit to not managing the euro very well. The Minister for the Economy, Pedro Solbes went on to explain the findings of the study further saying that many Spaniards still don’t feel comfortable using the euro and some were either afraid of spending too little or too much.

The study carried out by the European Commission took place in 2006 under the title ‘The Eurozone – five years after the introduction of the euro’.

The research included a section on finding out how the euro had changed consumers’ habits. Questions asked were ‘Do you buy less because you fear spending too much?’ ‘Do you buy more because you don’t know how much you are spending?’ and ‘Does the euro make little difference to your spending habits?’.

Only 45% of Spaniards who were included in the study were able to manage the euro in the same way as the peseta while 28% of those questioned confessed to spending more because they didn’t understand the true value of the euro and 26% admitted that they spent less because they feared they would go over their budget.

However, not being able to manage the euro very well appears to be a widespread problem throughout the Eurozone where only 41% of citizens said that they managed the euro in the same way as they had with their own former national currency.

On average those who overspent due to not being able to manage the euro well were more than those who underspent. However, the findings for Spain were the opposite with 58% of Spaniards included in the study admitting to spending less for fear of going over budget and only 25% admitted to overspending.

The country with the least problems in adapting to the euro was Portugal where 57% of those questioned were happy using the euro.

Ireland was found to be the country which had experienced the most problems adapting to the euro with only 28% of those questioned able to manage the euro as well as their own former national currency.
The study also found that women were more cautious than men in their spending habits and that the elderly took fewer precautions than the young. No significant differences were found in regards to people’s educational background.