Band 5+: The charts below show the proportion of people’s total spending on different commodities and services in a particular European country in 1998 and 2008. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features and make comparisons where relevant.

The bar charts compare information about expenditures on 6 different commodities, and services in Europe between 1998 and 2008. Units are measured in percentages.

Overall, it’s clear that the chart was mixed trend with significant increases in spending on “Clothing” and “Electronic goods”, while expenditures on “Holiday”, “Newspaper/Magazines”, and “Going to cinema” decreased. Moreover, Europeans spent the highest proportion of their budgets on “Clothing” and “Electronic goods”, whereas the opposite was true for “Magazines/Newspapers”, and “Going to cinema”.

In 1998, expenditures on “Electronic goods” were on the top with 16%, which followed by “Clothing” at 20%. In contrast, half of those spendings were experienced by two different figures, “Holiday” 8% and “Eating out” 6%, respectively. There were similar spending rates on “Newspaper/ Magazines”, and “Going to cinema” at 3% each.

All expenditure patterns had shifted in 2008. Expenditures on “Electronic goods” rose by 4.0% to 20%. It followed by slight increases on the expenditure of “Clothing” to 18%. Although “Holiday” spendings declined gradually by 3 percentage points to 5%, which was one quarter of expenditures on “Electronic goods” , there was no change in “Eating out”. Europeans’ the lowest expenditure of the given period was on “Newspaper/ magazines”, and “Going to cinema”, which were both decreased to 1%