Malta registers largest drop in household expenditure

Malta reported the largest decrease in household expenditure in the European Union between 2019 and 2021, according to Eurostat.

From 2019 to 2021, 16 EU Member States registered a decrease in household expenditure with the largest decrease in Malta (-14.0%), followed by Spain (-9.7%), Austria (-8.4%), Portugal (-6.8%) and Italy (-6.7%). The largest increases were recorded in Romania (+4.7%), Bulgaria (+4.3%), Lithuania (+3.5%), Estonia (+3.1%) and Sweden (+2.8%).

In 2021, household consumption expenditure in the EU increased by 4.2% compared with 2020, but is still 4.1% lower than in 2019.

All the EU Member States recorded an increase in household consumption expenditure in 2021, compared with 2020. This represented a partial recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic, when social distancing measures, government restrictions imposed on the movement of people and non-essential economic activities severely affected household consumption expenditure. Still, 16 EU countries have not yet fully recovered.

Comparing 2021 with 2020, the largest increases were recorded in Croatia (+21.2%), followed by Cyprus (+12.9%), Malta (+11.2%), Greece (+10.8%) and Slovenia (+10.2%). The smallest increases were reported in Germany (+0.1%), Austria (+0.5%), Slovakia (+1.3%), the Netherlands (+3.0%) and Czechia (+3.5%).