November 4, 2013. - The recently released study "GfK Purchasing Power Europe 2013/2014" reveals the regional distribution of consumers' purchasing power in 42 European countries. The spectrum ranges from 4.5 times the European average in Liechtenstein to one-tenth the average in Moldova.
According to the GfK purchasing power study, a total of approximately €8.62 trillion is available to European consumers in 2013 for spending and saving. This corresponds to an average per-capita purchasing power of €12,890 for the 42 countries under review.
Considerable discrepancies remain between the income available to inhabitants of these 42 countries for consumer spending.
Liechtenstein remains in the top position with a per-capita purchasing power of €58,844. Switzerland takes second place with €36,352, followed by Norway with €31,707 of per-capita purchasing power. Moldova is once again in last place with only around €1,284 per person. This amounts to less than one-tenth of the European average of approximately €12,370 per person; this latter figure roughly corresponds to the purchasing power of Spain.
General purchasing power refers to the money available to consumers for all expenditures related to food, accommodation and services as well as consumer purchases. Inhabitants of the European countries with the highest purchasing power must devote a large portion of their income to rent and generally more expensive living costs. Even so, inhabitants of these countries have substantially more money for non-essential purchases than consumers in countries with low purchasing power. The Europe-wide per-capita growth (revised) is 0.39 percent, which lies below the inflation rate of 1.5 percent determined by the European Central Bank. The GfK purchasing power study reflects the nominal purchasing power in euros, which provides a unified basis for comparing these values down to the most detailed level, Europe-wide. The exchange rates for non-euro countries are based on Eurostat figures from August 8, 2013.
http://www.gfk.com/news-and-events/press-room/press-releases/pages/purchasing-power-europe-2013-14.aspx