Purchasing Power - East vs. West

The newest data from RegioData Research regarding purchasing power in Europe show that compared to the previous year the purchasing power in Western European countries did not increase at the same rate as in Eastern European countries.
Those are still catching up, if currently slowed down by the eco-nomic crisis.

The nominal growth rate in most Western European countries was between 1 and 2% compared to the previous year – Eastern European countries still show growth rates clearly above 2 to 4%. An exception here are the Baltic states with growth rates at around 1%.

Regarding purchasing power in Euro the top 3 countries are Luxembourg with over 29.000 Euro per inhabitant per year, followed by Norway and Switzerland (each more than 21.000 Euro). Austria can be found in the upper third with a slight rise of 1% to 17.750 Euro.

Also the part of the purchasing power that is spent in retail trade varies strongly by country and here also within the different branches. For example the people in Romania are spending around 44% for food compared to Croatia (33%) and Slovenia (15%). One exception are the expenditures for clothing and shoes – here the people in these three countries spend approximately the same portion with 6-8%.

Further details and data for all countries can be found in the RegioData Purchasing Power Indices 2009 for 40 European countries. Data on consumer expenditures for 10 countries can be found in the Consumer expenditures CEE 2009.