Purchasing power of Europeans increases in 2023

In 2023, the average per capita purchasing power in Europe is €17,688. However, there is a clear divide among the 42 countries in Europe: Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Luxembourg, for example, have quite a higher net income than the rest of Europe, while the purchasing power is the lowest in Belarus, Kosovo, and Ukraine. The biggest winner of the year is Ireland, which moved up four places in the overall European comparison. These are some of the results of the newly released study “GfK Purchasing Power Europe 2023.”

Nominal growth of 5.8 %

In total, Europeans have around €12.1 billion available to spend in 2023 on food, housing, services, energy costs, private pensions, insurance, vacations, mobility, and consumer purchases. This corresponds to an average per capita purchasing power of €17,688 per year, which represents a nominal growth of 5.8 percent compared to the revised values of the previous year. However, the amount that consumers actually have available for spending and saving varies greatly from country to country, and also depends on how consumer prices develop in 2023.  

Different developments in the European countries

Tim Weber, expert in GfK’s Geomarketing solution area, comments: “This year, European countries are recording again a significant increase in purchasing power of almost 6 percent on average, but this cannot fully compensate for the still high inflation. However, the purchasing power does not develop the same way in every European country: For example, while Ireland climbs four places, the neighboring United Kingdom falls three places. And a lot has also happened within the countries – such as in the Czech Republic, where the rankings are mixed up considerably this year, or in Poland and France, where the gap between regions with strong and weak purchasing power is becoming ever larger. However, a somewhat positive trend can be observed between the 42 countries: Although the differences are still very high when it comes to spending potential, the purchasing power gap is at least closing a bit.”

Source: www.gfk.com