LISBON, March 14 (Xinhua) -- Seventy percent of the Portuguese families are affected by financial constraints and the lack of money to pay for all the monthly bills, the Portuguese Consumer Association said on Thursday.
The association conducted a survey to assess Portugal's living standards by analyzing ability of families to pay for bills on health, housing, education, food, transport and free time activities, and the results showed that seven out of 10 families cannot afford them.
In 1998 the results from a similar study showed that only 23 percent of the Portuguese families were able to pay all their monthly bills and 7 percent considered themselves poor.
The 2019 survey tried to understand in detail what the choices of the families were when they could not afford everything they needed.
The results showed that people are cutting dental healthcare services, the purchase of glasses and even food products like meat or fish.
The Portuguese value their home but 46 percent of respondents in the survey said they were not able to pay for all the electricity, water and gas bills.
The survey also showed that expectations of the Portuguese for the future are not very good as half of the families said they would keep counting pennies and 25 percent considered 2019 would be even more difficult than the previous year.
