The bar charts compare the proportion of people’s total spending on six categories of goods and services in a European country in 1998 and 2008.
Overall, while clothing and electronic goods experienced considerable growth in spending, holidays, newspapers and magazines, and cinema attendance all declined. Meanwhile, the proportion of money allocated to eating out remained unchanged.
In terms of increases, electronic goods consistently accounted for the largest share. Starting at 16% in 1998, expenditure on this category rose markedly to 20% in 2008. Similarly, spending on clothing underwent a substantial rise, climbing from 12% to 18% over the same period. By contrast, eating out remained constant at 6%, showing no variation between the two years.
Turning to the downward trends, holiday expenditure fell significantly from 8% in 1998 to just 5% in 2008. An even steeper decline was observed in spending on newspapers and magazines as well as cinema visits, both of which dropped from 3% to only 1% by the end of the period.
In summary, people in this European country shifted their spending priorities over the decade, devoting more to consumer goods, especially electronics and clothing, while cutting back sharply on leisure-related services.