Latvian households show fifth lowest welfare level in EU - Eurostat

  • 2018-06-20
  • LETA/TBT Staff

RIGA - Latvia last year had fifth lowest Actual Individual Consumption (AIC), measuring material welfare of households, in the EU, according to the latest Eurostat report.

AIC per capita expressed in Purchasing Power Standards (PPS) in Latvia was 70 percent of the average level in the EU, being above just Bulgaria (55 percent), Croatia (61 percent), Hungary (63 percent) and Romania (68 percent).

Slightly higher AIC was demonstrated in Estonia (72 percent), Poland (76 percent), Slovakia (76 percent), Slovenia and Greece (77 percent in each), Malta (78 percent), the Czech Republic (80 percent), Portugal (83 percent), and Lithuania (88 percent).

Meanwhile, Luxembourg (130 percent), Germany (122 percent), Austria (118 percent), the UK (114 percent), Finland (113 percent) and Belgium (112 percent) showed the highest household welfare.

Latvia’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in PPS last year was 67 percent of the average in the EU, the same as in Greece, but higher than in Bulgaria (49 percent), Croatia (61 percent), and Romania (63 percent). Estonia’s and Lithuania’s GDP reached 77 and 78 percent respectively, while the highest indicator was reported in Luxembourg (253 percent), Ireland (184 percent), the Netherlands (128 percent) and Austria (128 percent).