Filenews 24 November 2025 - by Theano Thiopoulou
Almost 18% of Cypriot households' consumption expenditure is channelled into the housing, water, electricity and fuel sectors, as shown by recent data published by Eurostat. The data highlight the slowdown in the growth rate of consumer spending in Cyprus, in contrast to the EU where an acceleration is recorded. Household consumption expenditure, adjusted for inflation, increased by 1.5%, compared to a modest increase of 0.3% in 2023. In the eurozone, the increase rose to 1.3% from 0.5% in 2023. In Cyprus, the annual increase in consumer spending was 3.6% in 2024 compared to 6.1% in 2023, reflecting changes in consumption, perhaps due to the inflation that preceded it. In terms of total household consumption expenditure, as a percentage of GDP it reaches 61.6% in Cyprus and is the fourth highest in the EU after Greece (75.3%), Croatia (70.5%) and Portugal (6.6%).
The largest increases in household consumption were recorded in Malta (+8.8%), followed by Romania (+5.6%) and Hungary (+5.3%). Finland is the only country showing a declining trend (-0.5%) in 2024 as well.
Categories of expenditure
Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels are the largest European household expenditures in 2024, followed by food, non-alcoholic beverages and transport. Eurostat data show that in terms of expenditure on housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, the highest shares of household expenditure are observed in Czechia (32.1%), Finland (29.6%), Denmark (28.5%), Slovakia (27.6%), France (27.5%), Romania (27.1%), Estonia (25.4%), Ireland (25%), Belgium (24.2%), Germany (23.3%), Austria (23%), Italy (22.8%). The lowest shares were recorded in Croatia (14.4%), Malta (15.1%) and Latvia (15.8%). In Cyprus the percentage is a little higher and the expenditure for this category is 17.8% and for Greece 21.8%. In terms of expenditure on food and non-alcoholic beverages, the highest shares were recorded in Romania (23.1%), Bulgaria, Latvia (both 20.1%), Slovakia (19.7%), Estonia (18.8%), Lithuania (18.6%), Portugal (18.2%), Poland (18.1%), Croatia (17.6%), Greece (15.8%). The lowest shares were observed in Luxembourg (9.3%), Ireland (9.8%) and Austria (10.2%), while Cyprus is slightly higher with a percentage of 12.5%.
Finally, the highest shares of expenditure for the category of transport were recorded in Slovenia (17.0%), Lithuania (15.2%), Germany (14.2%), Luxembourg (14.1%), Poland (13.4%), Greece, Portugal and Italy (13.1%), Cyprus (12.9%), Bulgaria, France, the Netherlands (12.6%). The lowest shares were observed in Slovakia (5.8%), Croatia (8.2%) and Czechia (8.5%).
Recovery supports consumption
The picture in Europe is that from 2022, the effect of the recovery is observed, along with the positive trend that continues in 2023 and is confirmed in 2024. After strong growth in 2022 and 2023, categories such as restaurants and accommodation services, as well as transportation, continued to grow, but at a slower pace. A downward trend is confirmed for clothing and footwear and alcoholic beverages, tobacco and drugs. In 2024, total household spending in the EU amounted to 51.8% of GDP, recording a slight decrease compared to 2023 (51.9% of GDP), thus halting the upward trend of recent years. It should also be noted that it is 2.2 percentage points (pp) lower than the share of GDP in 2014, when household spending amounted to 54.1% of GDP.
