OREANDA-NEWS. December 16, 2014. Eurostat published its most recent analysis of purchasing power parities and related economic indicators in the EU and some other countries.

The results show that whereas Estonia's GDP in 2013 was 27 percent below the EU average, the Actual Individual Consumption (AIC) per capita, which indicates the real material welfare of households, was 35 percent below the EU average.

These factors are perhaps best put into context when compared with Latvia and Lithuania. In Latvia, the AIC per capita was at the same level as in Estonia. Latvia's GDP, however, was 9 percentage points smaller than Estonia's 73 percent. Lithuania had the same GDP as Estonia, but its consumption indicator was much higher, only 22 percent below EU average, as the price level in Lithuania is much lower than in Estonia.

The highest AIC per capita in the EU was recorded in Luxembourg, 36 percent above the EU average. Germany and Austria were also 20 percent or more above the average.

The only EU countries lagging behind Estonia in material welfare of households were Latvia, Hungary, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria.