Purchasing power of Europeans climbs by 1.9 per cent in 2017

Europeans have a total of around EUR 9.4 trillion available to them in 2017 for spending on food, living expenses, services, energy costs, private retirement savings, insurance, holidays, mobility and other consumer purchases. This amounts to average purchasing power per capita of EUR 13,937, equivalent to growth of 1.9 per cent and a significant rise over the previous year. These figures emerge from the study "GfK Purchasing Power Europe 2017".
However, the amount at the disposal of consumers for their purchases varies considerably from one country to another. In Liechtenstein, which is way out in front of all other countries in the purchasing power rankings as in the previous year, the per-capita purchasing power is EUR 63,267, more than 4.5 times higher than the European average. Switzerland lies in second place with purchasing power of EUR 42,142 per head of population.
A total of 17 countries are above the European average, including Spain, which with EUR 14,080 per capita comes just above the average. On the other side of the coin, there are 25 countries in which the per-capita purchasing power is below the average. Propping up the table is Ukraine: in the country with the lowest purchasing power, the population has only EUR 949 per capita at its disposal, less than 7 per cent of the European average.