Projected Government Spending For Developed Countries in 2013

Denmark has the highest projected government spending as a percentage of GDP, with 58.4 percent. France and Austria also have notably high expentiture percentages, even above Noric countries Finland and Sweden. Greece doesn't have that high government spending after all with 48.3 it is around the average. Australia has the lowest government spending for the selected countries.

EU House Price Change Since Credit Crisis (2008-2012)

This chart with data from Eurostat shows the average change in the house prices in the EU since the credit crisis really started to break down in the United States, the second half of 2008, until the third quarter of 2012. Countries known for being in a big crisis at the moment saw the largest declines in their house prices, mainly Ireland and Spain. The Netherlands and Denmark have to highest household debt-to-gdp ratio's in the world and saw their house prices declines a lot as well. The last group of countries on the downside are several East-European countries for which Latvia and Lithuania saw big declines. In contrast, three out of four Scandinavia countries had their house prices increase substantially.

Luxetveritas

Euro Zone Unemployment Spreads Q4 2012

When people talk about Euro Zone spreads they normally refer to the difference between the government borrowing interest rate of a particular Euro Zone country in comparison to the interest rate for the German government. German government bonds are taken as the benchmark since lending to the German government is basically seen as risk free. When lending to other countries, especially the southern Euro Zone countries, a risk premium is added on top of the German interest rate to reflect the higher default rate of those countries.

Besides this financial interpretation of spreads, a different form of spreads can be constructed to show the differences in the real economy between the Euro Zone countries: unemployment spreads. Unemployment spreads for the Euro Zone are defined as the difference between the unemployment rate in a particular Euro Zone country and the unemployment rate in Germany. As can be expected Euro Zone countries most hit by the Euro crisis have the highest unemployment spreads, with Greece and Spain even above 20 percent. This is a lot higher than the Euro Area average of 5.8 percent and the EU average of 5,3 percent. Austria, the Netherlands and Finland on the other hand have unemployment rates comparable to that of Germany.

EU Countries 2012 Government Debt Projections

Reuters constructed this graph, with data from the European Commission, which shows the projected government debt ratio's for the selected EU countries. As you cansee for most countries the debt to gdp ratio is well above it's 10 year average.

As you might have expected Greece has the highest debt to gdp ratio. On the other hand, Sweden's debt is even lower than it's 10 year average. Euro Area avearge government debt is expected to be at 95 percent.

Reuters

Household Debt Versus Disposable Income (1995-2011)

This graph gives the ratio of total household debt divided by the total of disposable income of the households in countries of the Euro Area and the USA. On average the household debt to income rate was relatively stable in the Euro Area approaching the 100 percent just before the credit crisis from around 70 percent at the beginning of the Euro. The household debt to income ratio was already higher in 1999 in the USA and saw a much bigger increase, but unlike in the Euro Area the ratio has come back quite a lot already in the United States.

The average of around 100 percent currently in the Euro Area is mainly formed by the bigger economies: Germany and France, who have a ratio close to the Euro Area average. There are notable outliners, especially Denmark, The Netherlands and Ireland that have a way bigger ratio of 200 to almost 300 percent.

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Credit Ratings, U.S., Japan and Euro Zone (Oct 2012)

Thompson Reuters created this graph with the long term sovereign debt ratings for the Western countries. For the three major credit rating institutions the ratings are listed.

Thompson Reuters

Historical Financial Crises: Percentage Job Losses From Peak

In this graph the percentage job losses from the peaks are shows for several countries during selected financial crises. Finland (1991: year of start of the contraction) saw the biggest decline in employment; almost 20 percent. Compared to Finland (and most other selected countries) the United States job market is currently not doing that bad. For Sweden of the selected countries it took the longest, during its crisis starting in 1991, for the job market the recover to pre-crisis levels, 17,8 years. 

Luxetveritas

EU VAT-Rates Compared

The value added tax raises the price on consumer goods. Almost all EU countries had a higher VAT-rate in 2012 compared to 2000. Perhaps surprisingly, Hungary has the highest VAT-rate, followed by Scandinavian Denmark and Sweden. Cyprus, Portugal, Greece, Spain and Romania particularly saw their VAT rising in the last twelve years. Except for Cyprus, all of these countries have now a higher rate than the average for the EU of 21 percent.

Reuters

Oil Consumption (consumers+companies) Per Capita

As you were able to see in the post a few days ago, The United States consumes the most oil of all the countries. Perhaps surprisingly enough, it is not the country with the highest oil consumption per capita. Singapore takes the first spot, with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia second and third. The U.S. only takes the ninth place after two more oil producing countries, two European countries and Canada. Perhaps also surprisingly, Germany is on the bottom of the developed countries.

Update: this chart also shows consumption of companies, like aviation and oil refinery. That's why consumption per capita may be a bit misleading.

Oil Consumption Per Capita

OECD: Official Versus Effective Retirement Age

The official retirement age is rarely equal to the effective retirement age, the average age the people actually retire. As you can see in this chart the official retirement age can be both higher and lower than the effective retirement age. What is the same for all countries is that the life expectancy was raised and that (assuming an equal or declining birth rate) the work force needs to finance more elderly people. A very reasonable option to do that is by raising the effective retirement age (with the official retirement age).

Japan and Sweden had the highest effective retirement age in 2010, while Austria, France and Belgium (and not Greece) had the lowest effective retirement age.

The Economist

Long Term Pension Age (OECD Countries)

OECD published this graph with the long term pension age in OECD countries. Denmark and Italy have their pension age linked to life expectancy, which means it will almost reach 69 in 2050. Iceland and Norway are already at 67, and increasingly more countries will reach that age in the next years. In some countries there are differences between woman and men.

OECD Pensions Outlook 2012

Credit Ratings Overview April 2012

The ratings by S&P and Moody's are generally viewed as the most important. As you can see only Germany, Finland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands have an AAA-rating by all of the credit rating agencies.

Buildup of Total Debt (Consumers, Companies & Gov.) in 80s, 90s and 00s

In the left part of the graph you can see the total debt development for the United States across the Household, Corporate, Government and Government Sponsored Entity sectors. You can see that Great Depression levels are being reached again.

Not for every country data about debt levels are available for such a long period. There is data available however from 1980. In the right panel you can see the debt buildup for the three sectors combined (excluding financial sector) per decade as a percentage of GDP. You can see that from 1980-1990 Belgium, Sweden, Italy and Japan had the highest debt buildup. From 1990-2000 Portugal, Spain, Germany and Italy had the highest increase. From 2000 until 2010 however, Portugal, Spain, U.K., France, U.S. and Greece were among the countries with the highest buildup in their debt across the three sectors.

2012 Forecast: Double Dip Recession in Euro Zone

The European Commission released its latest forecast for the change in yearly GDP for the countries in the European Union. Compared to the current forecast for the growth of 2011 (no definite figures yet), all countries except for two, are expected to grow (or contract) at a lower rate in 2012. Ironically Greece is among the two countries that is expected to do better this year, than last year. Although it's still the country with the highest expected contraction in the EU.

The Euro Zone as a whole is expected to contract by 0,3%, while for the European Union a zero percent 'growth' is expected.

Reuters

OECD Countries: Average Tuition Fees & Grants Received (Public Institutions)

This graph shows the average higher edution public tuition fees in dollars for the year 2004/2005. You can see United States was the most expensive country to study in that year. Australia and Japan come in second. Its the cheapest to study in Turkey, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Norway and Denmark.

In Turkey, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands (almost) every student receives a grant. In Belgium and Japan the least number of student receive a grant.

Source: CBS

OECD Countries: How much does the one percent earn?

The one chart which the global occupy-er needs.

In this chart you can see what share of total income the one percent of earners have in several countries. The light blue is the share which it was in 1990. The dark blue is the share which it was in 2007. The United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Finland and Ireland saw the biggest increases in inequality.

Off The Charts

As you can see the United States has by far the highest inequality among OECD countries.

The next chart shows which occupation the richest 0,1 percent (not the 1 percent) in the United States have.

This chart shows the change in occupation in the total 0,1 percent richest earners. You can see that finance increased dramatically.

EconomPic

EFSF Guarantees Per Country (Total And Per Capita)

The EFSF is the Euro Zone Bailout Fund. Established on May 9 2010 and located in Luxembourg (registered as a company from Luxembourg).

In the last few weeks all 17 Euro Zone Members have ratified the bigger Euro Bailout Fund. The EFSF can now lend out 440 billion euros. In July Euro Zone leaders have agreed to a few amendments to the EFSF. It will also be able to finance recapitalization of financial institutions to through loans to governments. It can also intervene in the secondary markets (buy bonds on the markets of countries losing confidence from the markets) on the basis on an ECB analysis to avoid contagion. Lately the question has been raised by many whether the current amount of the EFSF is enough. Certainly not if Italy and Spain need bailout money as well.

In this chart the updated committed guarantees per country are pictured on the upper side and the guarantees person on the lower side of the graph. As you can see Germany is the biggest contributor to the EFSF with 211 billion euros committed guarantees. Luxembourg has the highest committed guarantees per person.

Note: K=1000. So 100K = 100 billion euros.

Credit Ratings Of European Countries: Another Update

Since Italy has been downgraded by Standard & Poors Reuters released a new graph of the current Euro Zone sovereign debt ratings. Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands and Austria still have AAA-ratings. Greece has the lowest rating C.

Change In Unit Labor Costs (Q2 2011)

The next graph shows the change in unit labor costs in some selected countries. According to many unit labor costs is a good measure for labor costs in a country. It is the cost of labor to make one unit of output. The measure increases when wage cost increase and decreases when productivity increases.

The graph is ordered decreasingly by the change in wages. In Norway and Australia unit labor cost rose the most and in Denmark and Austria the least.

The Economist

Euro Zone Second Quarter Economic Growth

This graph shows the economic growth of European Countries in the second quarter of 2011. In France the economy didn't grow or contract compared to the first quarter. Poland had a high growth percentage of 1 percent. Average Euro Area economic growth was 0,2 percent. The growth figures for the PIIGS countries are not available yet.