Macroeconomic data continues to surprise on the upside, but there is no sign of enthusiasm among the public. GDP growth and record employment are overshadowed by the inflation crisis, job insecurity and rising tax burdens. Household finances are not keeping up with GDP, and an increasing number of households are struggling to make ends meet.
Spain is the country with the most struggling households, according to new data from the Alope index (risk of poverty or social exclusion), used by the European Commission as its main measure of poverty. The index counts people who cannot afford a range of basic goods and services and the population at risk of poverty.
One in four people will be at risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2023, at 26.5%, a worsening of 0.5 percentage points compared to the previous year. This means that despite economic growth, the number of people in financial difficulty has increased over the year, in contrast to a 0.2 percentage point decrease in the euro area as a whole.
Until 2023, Greece was the worst-performing country in the ALLOPE index, but in that year it reduced its poverty level by 0.2 percentage points. For the first time since Eurostat began calculating the index in 2015, Greece is no longer the worst-performing country in the euro area, now held by Spain, whose leading economic growth has not helped reduce poverty levels.
