European consumers have in total eight billion Euros of purchasing power at their disposal. Transfer payments by the state such as unemployment benefits, family allowances or pensions are included in the before-mentioned amount of money. Thus, purchasing power amounts to on average 12,500 Euros on a per capita basis. However, there are quite big differences when comparing individual countries. In Moldavia, where purchasing power is smallest, a consumer has just 800 Euros at their disposal, in Liechtenstein which is the country with the biggest purchasing power, a consumer has about 45,000 Euros at her or his disposal. These are the findings of the “GfK purchasing power in Europe 2008/2009” survey by the Association for research on consumption (GfK) in Nuremberg.
Luxembourg with a purchasing power of 28,192 Euros per capita ranks second in this list of most important European purchasing powers followed by Switzerland (26,842 Euros). In Germany the average purchasing power amounts to 18,734 Euros which places Germany in the tenth position of this list.
Island fell from rank four to rank seven in this list. The repercussions of the financial crisis have not been taken into account by the study in question. Therefore, the financial problems from which Island has been suffering over recent weeks were not accounted for in the study in question.
Great Britain which came eighth last year ranks eleventh in this year’s ranking. Norway’s rise among the top ten is among other things due to decline of Great Britain and a stronger Norwegian krone against the Euro.
In general, in most west European countries purchasing power is growing only slowly. In several countries in central and Eastern Europe, on the other hand, growth rates are of considerable size.
While in Western Europe those areas with much purchasing power are most of the time situated around conurbations, in Eastern Europe it is he cities themselves where purchasing power is most developed. The top 20 communities in the Ukraine are all cities and now rural regions. In Hungary the inhabitants of the richest community which is in the capital Budapest have about 8988 Euros at their disposal which corresponds to the purchasing power of the poorest community in Germany. In the community with the smallest purchasing power in Hungary, on the other, purchasing power amounts to just 2086 Euro per year and per capita.
An optical presentation of the purchasing power in all EU member states is available for download in ZIP format. 