A fifth decrease in Lithuanian shopping in Poland in the first half of 2024 is due to a change in the expectations of Lithuanian consumers, according to Alexander Izgorodin, an economist at the Bank of Lithuania. In addition, he said, the zloty's appreciation against the euro at the end of 2023 also contributed to the change.

„I think that the main influence was the fact that Lithuanian consumers' expectations and purchasing power have risen considerably compared to last year. In June, for example, the opinion of the Lithuanian population on the financial outlook was the best since the spring of 2007. Correspondingly, we can see that the willingness of the population to spend money is rising. But it seems that this is no longer the case in Poland," Izgorodin told LRT radio on Friday.

„The strengthening of the zloty has also had an impact. On the one hand, we have the recovery of the purchasing power of the population, on the other, the strengthening of the zloty against the euro," he added.

The economist mentioned that „Citadele“'s data showing a decrease is based only on card payments, and the bank is unable to assess whether the changes are also visible among people who pay in cash in Poland.

According to Mr Izgorodin, the biggest purchases by Lithuanians in Poland are for food products. Vytautas Liškauskas, the head of the Punsk voivodeship, notes that Lithuanians go there to buy clothes and occasionally even furniture.

„We don't have exact data on what people buy, but we can easily guess what it is. It's basically dominated by food products. It is no secret that Lithuanians in Poland buy both short and long shelf-life food products. This was particularly visible in both 2022 and 2023 when we had the inflation shock and the fall in purchasing power," commented Mr Izgorodinas.

„And the most common thing we see is definitely food. (...) Who goes to Suvalki, we notice that not only food, but also clothes. I don't know at the moment, but earlier there was also shopping for furniture and building materials," Liškauskas told LRT Radio.

According to the head of the Punsk voivodeship, although the flow of Lithuanians to Poland is decreasing, the number of Poles wishing to shop in Lithuania is not increasing at the moment.

„There was a time when people from Poland used to come to Lithuania to shop, but that is not the case anymore,– he said.

According to the information provided by LRT, such a decrease should not have a significant impact on Polish businesses, as shopping by Lithuanians accounts for only 3% of the country's border trade.

According to data from Citadele“ Bank's private customer card payments, the value of payments made in Lithuania in the first half of 2024 grew by 4.8%, while both the number of payments made and the value of payments made in Poland fell by about 20%.

Payment data shows that Lithuanians spent the most money in Germany, Poland, France, Italy and Spain in the first half of 2024.