Band 6+: The table below gives information on spending on different items in five different countries in 2002. Summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

The table shows the percentage of customer spending in 5 European countries on several categories of essential items in 2002. Overall, people spend more of their finances on food, drinks and tobacco, regardless of the country. Moreover, the other two categories take less than 10 percent of people’s spending.

Focusing on the big numbers first, in countries such as Turkey and Ireland consumers outlay approximately a third of their money on foods, drinks and tobacco. Although in Italy, Spain and Sweden the index is lower than 20 percent.

In contrast, except Italy, the remaining 4 nations spend less than the tenth of their budget on two other categories of spending such as clothing and footwear, and leisure and education. Whereas Italians are leading at buying new wear, with 9 percent of their spending, Swedes expend 3.22 percent of their budget on leisure and education, which is the highest index among other European countries.