The table below illustrates the percentage of consumer expenditure on different categories in five countries in 2002.
Overall,it can be seen that food, drinks and tobacco account for the highest proportion of expenditure in all five countries , while spending on leisure and education was the lowest. It is also notable that Turkey represents the highest levels of spending in two out of the three categories, whereas Sweden generally recorded the bottom percentages.
In terms of food, drinks and tobacco, Turkey and Ireland saw the highest level of outlay. Turkey topped the list with 32.14% of national income spent on these items, closely followed by Ireland at 28.91%. In contrast, the remaining allocated significantly less of their budget to this category. Specifically, Spanish consumers spent 18.80% while Italy and Sweden recorded the lowest rate at 16.36% and 15.77%, relatively.
As for the remaining figures,the rate of money spent on clothing and footwear in Italy was definitely 9.00%. The figures for Turkey, Spain, Ireland witnessed a similar pattern, with 6.63%, 6.51% and 6.43%, respectively. Whereas the rate of spendings in this category in Sweden was much less, being 5.40% in 2002. Finally, cash spent on leisure and education was the lowest across all five nations ranging from approximately 4.35% in Turkey to 1.98% in Spain.