Bulgarians’ purchasing power is less than half the average purchasing power for the 27 European Union member states, even though it had climbed slowly between 2006 and 2008, according to figures released on December 15 2009 by European statistical office Eurostat.
 
Romania was a similar position, although its rate of growth of purchasing power had been faster, according to Eurostat’s calculations of gross domestic product expressed in purchasing power standards.
 
The report by Eurostat covered 27 EU member states, the three EU candidate countries, three EFTA member states and four Western Balkans countries.
 
Most of the countries around Bulgaria and still aspiring to EU membership were worse off than the two countries that joined in January 2007.

Croatia, however, which could complete EU accession negotiations in 2010, performed better in terms of purchasing power than Bulgaria and Romania.
 
Those ranking lower included Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and lowest-ranked of all, Albania.
 
At the other end of the scale was Luxembourg, with purchasing power standards more than two and a half times the EU average, according to Eurostat.
 
Ireland and the Netherlands recorded levels about one third above average.
 
Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany, the United Kingdom and Belgium were between 15 per cent and 25 per cent above the EU27 average.

France , Spain and Italy registered GDP per inhabitant between zero and 10 per cent above the EU27 average, while Cyprus , Greece and Slovenia were between zero and 10 per cent below the average.

The Czech Republic, Malta, Portugal, and Slovakia were between 20 per cent and 30 per cent lower than the EU27 average.
 
Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland were between 30 per cent and 50 per cent lower.