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SpatialNews.com Press Release
Where the Purchasing Power Lies in Germany in 2005
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The Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung (GfK) consumer research company has just published its latest study on purchasing power in Germany. Accordingly, there has been only a slight increase in the average income of German citizens while the East continues to close the gap on the West.
Purchasing power was calculated by GfK for the first time in 1937. It is used to describe disposable income, without taxes and social contributions, including transfers. It is listed per capita and year in euros and in the form of an index (German average = 100). In addition to wage and income tax statistics, the basis for calculation is the relevant statistics for the calculation of transfers and the forecast values of the economic institutions.
According to the results of the GfK survey, German consumers will have net earned income totalling 1,410 billion euros available to them in 2005, including transfers, such as unemployment benefit, child allowance or pensions. Per capita, this equates to purchasing power or disposable income of 17,087 euros per annum which every German citizen can spend on basic necessities and consumer goods. Accordingly, there is a real increase in disposable income of 0.4 percent over the previous year. Although income in the new federal states is 20.1 percent below the national average, the gap between East and West continues to close.
Not only in comparisons between the new and the old federal states do some great differences exist, these can also be found within individual states. Thus, for example, purchasing power in the seven Bavarian administrative districts ranges from 16,230 euros in the Upper Palatinate region, which borders on the Czech Republic, to 20,091 euros in Upper Bavaria. The amount of purchasing power varies in the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate too. While the Rheinhessen-Pfalz district comes in tenth place in the rankings, with 18,000 euros, the administrative district of Trier comes in last among the old federal states with 15,587 euros.
While the administrative districts in the new federal states still find themselves at the back of the field, they were able to shorten the gap to the German average for the first time for the year 2005. The administrative districts with the best performance here were Brandenburg, Leipzig and Dresden. With a disposable income of 14,115 euros, Brandenburg is roughly 17 percent below the national average and is ranked ahead of the administrative district of Leipzig with 13,959 euros. Third place was taken up by Dresden which, with a disposable income of 13,812 euros, had to settle for 19 percent less than the national average.
GfK purchasing power is a significant indicator of the economic power of a region and is therefore an indispensable foundation for business political decisions. It is particularly well suited for location planning and evaluation, field service control and direct marketing. GfK Purchasing Power 2005 is currently available from GfK MACON for all German urban and rural districts, all communities and postcode areas and for 2.4 million street sections. In addition to this, the latest purchasing power figures are available for the communities and postcode areas of other European countries.
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