Eurostat: Bulgarians with the Lowest Purchasing Power Standards
Finance | December 13, 2019, Friday // 18:28| viewsActual Individual Consumption (AIC) is a measure of material welfare of households. Across the Member States in 2018, AIC per capita expressed in Purchasing Power Standards (PPS) varied from 56% of the European Union (EU) average in Bulgaria to 134% in Luxembourg.
These data, published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, are based on revised purchasing power parities, and the latest GDP and population figures.
Eighteen Member States below the EU average Ten Member States recorded AIC per capita above the EU average in 2018.
The highest level in the EU was recorded in Luxembourg, 34% above the EU average, ahead of Germany (20% above). They were followed by Austria, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Finland, Sweden and France with levels of 7 to 17% above the EU average.
AIC per capita for fourteen Member States lay between the EU average and 30% below. In Italy, Ireland, Cyprus and Spain the levels were 10% or less below the EU average, while Lithuania, Portugal, Czechia and Malta were between 10% and 20% below. Slovenia, Greece, Poland, Estonia, Slovakia and Romania were between 20% and 30% below the average. Four Member States recorded AIC per capita more than 30% below the EU average. Latvia, Croatia and Hungary were between 30% and 40% below, while Bulgaria had AIC per capita more than 40% below the EU average, Eurostat data showed.
Over the last three years, AIC per capita relative to the EU average remained relatively stable in a majority of Member States. However, clear increases have been registered in Romania (71% of the EU average in 2018 compared with 65% in 2016), Slovakia (73% vs. 68%) and Lithuania (89% vs. 85%). In contrast, the most noticeable decreases were recorded in Sweden (108% in 2018 vs. 112% in 2016) and France (107% vs. 110%).
GDP per capita varied by one to five across the Member States
In 2018, GDP per capita expressed in PPS ranged between 51% of the EU average in Bulgaria and 261% in Luxembourg
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