Young people’s perception of inflation in Hungary

Abstract

Inflation generally means the devaluation of money, which leads to a relative rise in prices. Nowadays inflation is a prevalent phenomenon, the causes of which include the Covid pandemic that broke out in 2020 and the Russian- Ukrainian war of 2022. Although the epidemic has now reached a resting point, and the war also affects our country only indirectly, these events still have an impact on the Hungarian economy. Inflation is increasing and the economy is heading towards recession. The purpose of this article is to assess how well young Hungarian people are aware of the current inflationary processes, the reasons behind them, and the expected consequences. After processing the relevant literature, primary research has been prepared in which we tried to get answers to our research questions using an online questionnaire. Our research approach is functionalist since we do not intend to change perceptions about inflation, but to observe and quantify them. We have used a convenience sampling procedure, with snowball methodology, so our research results cannot be considered representative, however, many interesting correlations were revealed during the research. With the questionnaire, we reached 270 young people, including 33 foreigners studying in Hungary, which provided an opportunity to investigate whether foreigners have a better understanding of the inflation process, its causes and consequences. In the light of the results, it can be said that since young people do not yet have their own income, and they hardly or only partially make financial decisions, they are therefore not really aware of the causes and consequences of inflation. No significant difference was found between respondents from the two genders. However, those who are already working and their main source of income is their work are significantly more aware of the effects of inflation than those who can buy mainly with the support of their families.

Inflation generally means the devaluation of money, which leads to a relative rise in prices. Nowadays inflation is a prevalent phenomenon, the causes of which include the Covid pandemic that broke out in 2020 and the Russian- Ukrainian war of 2022. Although the epidemic has now reached a resting point, and the war also affects our country only indirectly, these events still have an impact on the Hungarian economy. Inflation is increasing and the economy is heading towards recession. The purpose of this article is to assess how well young Hungarian people are aware of the current inflationary processes, the reasons behind them, and the expected consequences. After processing the relevant literature, primary research has been prepared in which we tried to get answers to our research questions using an online questionnaire. Our research approach is functionalist since we do not intend to change perceptions about inflation, but to observe and quantify them. We have used a convenience sampling procedure, with snowball methodology, so our research results cannot be considered representative, however, many interesting correlations were revealed during the research. With the questionnaire, we reached 270 young people, including 33 foreigners studying in Hungary, which provided an opportunity to investigate whether foreigners have a better understanding of the inflation process, its causes and consequences. In the light of the results, it can be said that since young people do not yet have their own income, and they hardly or only partially make financial decisions, they are therefore not really aware of the causes and consequences of inflation. No significant difference was found between respondents from the two genders. However, those who are already working and their main source of income is their work are significantly more aware of the effects of inflation than those who can buy mainly with the support of their families.