Spaniards' wealth falls to 1998 levels

 

Revised figures published last week by EU statistics agency Eurostat reveal that Spain is going backwards in terms of the average income of its citizens compared to those of other member states.

The new figures reveal that Spain's GDP per capita figures for 2012 are at 96% of the EU average, rather than the 97%included in advance figures released by Eurostat earlier this year.

That puts Spain back on a level last seen in 1998, several years before the introduction of the euro.

Spain hit its peak in terms of GDP per capita compared to other EU countries in 2007, when it exceeded the average by 6 percentage points. The economic crisis, however, from which Spain is yet to emerge, put paid to that prosperity.

Luxembourg tops the 2012 table in terms of GDP per capita, at 263% of the EU average, followed by Austria, which comes in at 130%.