Per-capita consumption: France above the European average

In 2012 in France, actual per-capita household consumption in volume was 14% above the European average. It was at a level comparable to that of Belgium, the United Kingdom and northern European countries, and behind Luxembourg, Germany and Austria. In particular, the French consumed more housing, food, transport and healthcare than their European partners. This higher-than-average consumption in volume is not due to lower prices, quite the contrary: the prices of goods and services consumed in France were 9% above the European average. Indeed, price levels are highly variable from one EU country to the next, by a factor of one to three. The majority of northern countries have higher prices while those of Central and Eastern Europe have lower prices. Prices in France were only 3% higher than the average among countries that joined the Union before 2004. Since 2009 and the financial crisis, the great variability between the macroeconomic trajectories of EU countries has led to wider price differentials, while they have remained stable between members of the Eurozone.