Greeks, Cypriots spend most on household expenditures in EU

Greeks and Cypriots spend the highest percentage of their income on household expenditures, according to data released by Eurostat.

“Looking at particular countries, the analysis in this article can only point out some interesting trends: as a ratio to GDP in 2017, the highest levels of household expenditure were found in Cyprus (76.4% of GDP), Greece (73.0%) and Portugal (68.3%), while the lowest levels were found in Ireland (30.9%), Luxembourg (34.3%), Sweden (43.3%) and The Netherlands (43.6%),” the data indicate.

Greeks spend 17 percent of their income on food and non-alcoholic beverages.

More precisely, Greeks spend 16.9 percent of their income on buying food, whereas the average among the 28 EU member-states is 12.2 percent.

That is the third most important category of households’ expenditures, after “housing, water, electricity, natural gas and other fuels”, which comprise 24.2 percent, and 13 percent of income is spent on transportation expenditures.

The countries with the highest percent of income spent on food and non-alcoholic beverages are the Eastern European EU member-states (Romania being first, with 27.8 percent).

On the other hand, in the UK households spend only 8.2 percent of their income on food and drink, and 8.9 percent in Luxembourg.