The study by GfK ‘Purchasing Power Europe 2014/2015’ shows an increase in the disposable income of the European consumers. We are speaking of a total amount of approximately 8.83 trillion euro corresponding to an average per-capita purchasing power of 13,112 euro for the 42 countries under review. According to the European Central Bank, the inflation rate for 2014 will be one percent for the 28 European Union members. Of course, there are considerable differences among the countries in terms of the amount available to private consumers for consumption-related purchases. There’s a very noticeable prosperity gap between Western and Northern Europe on the one hand, and Central, Eastern and Southern Europe on the other.
While Norway has a disposable per-capita income of 30,560 euro, Bulgaria has a mere 3,097 euro, which is around only one-tenth of the Norwegian figure. The ranking of the individual European countries has changed compared to the last year: Denmark climbed two places to the fifth spot. Germany, Great Britain, Malta, Lithuania, Estonia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Kosovo and Belarus all moved up one spot. Albania dropped four spots to third last. Sweden went down three places to the eighth position. The Czech Republic fell two spots, while Belgium, Cyprus and Turkey all fell one spot. Many of these changes are due to exchange rate fluctuations between the euro and the local currency in question. GfK Purchasing Power is calculated in euros to support Europe-wide comparisons of the data. The countries with low purchasing power have however slowly caught up in recent years. But some suffered significant setbacks due to the financial crisis.