Ireland has the highest cost levels in the European Union. Costs here are 46.4 per cent above the EU average. Spending €100 here will buy you less than 70 per cent of what it will purchase in our neighbours. That means that, in terms of what it can buy for you, €100 of output generated here is effectively worth less than 70 per cent of that same amount produced elsewhere in the EU.
In July, the Central Statistics Office published data showing actual consumption here, adjusted for prices. The chart for actual individual consumption (purchasing power standard) makes for chastening reading for those who regularly champion the Irish economic development model. Based on last year’s data, Ireland is in the bottom half of the EU league table, placed 15th out of 27 member states.
Top of the EU table is Luxembourg whose real consumption per head is running at 159 per cent of Irish levels. Slovenia (103 per cent) and Romania (101 per cent) are immediately above us while we are trailed most closely by Poland (99 per cent) and Portugal (98 per cent). Bulgaria is firmly located at the bottom of the EU table with consumption levels just 77 per cent of Ireland’s.