Consumer spending on different items in five countries
The table illustrates the percentage of national expenditure on three different categories of products and services in Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Turkey in 2002.
It is noticeable that food, drinks and tobacco category accounted for the largest proportion in consumer spending in all five countries in 2002. By contrast, the lowest percentage of consumer expenditure went on leisure and education category. The outlay of Turkey was generally higher than the other four countries.
Out of five countries, consumer spending on food, drinks and tobacco was noticeably higher in Turkey, at just over 32%, and Ireland, at nearly 29%. The proportion of spending on leisure and education was also highest in Turkey, at 4.35%. On the other hand, the spending on clothing and footwear was significant higher in Italy, at exactly 9%, than in any of the counterpart countries.
In 2002, Sweden had the lowest ratio of consumer expenditure in terms of food/drinks/tobacco and clothing/footwear, at nearly 16% and 5.4% respectively. Spain had slightly higher figures for those categories, but leisure/education was by far the least popular category in Spain, the ratio for this category stood at approximately 2%.
