OREANDA-NEWS. January 10, 2014. Moldova is among the countries with the highest expenditure for food in Europe, according to a study by Russian RIA Rating Agency.

Moldova ranked 39th out of 40 countries included in the top as regards the share of expenses for food of the overall spending. The Moldovans monthly spend 43.2 per cent of their income to cover the food expenses, and 1.7 per cent on alcohol.

The highest percentage of the expenditures used to buy food is in Ukraine, with slightly more than a half of the total, and 3.5 per cent to purchase alcoholic beverages.

The evaluation agency’s experts explain higher expenses for food by the low income of the residents living in these Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. The percentage of expenditures for food is relatively proportional to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, usually the higher the first indicator is, the lower is the second one.

The food expenditure share is higher in countries with low GDP per capita. Thus, Kazakhstan ranks37th, with a percentage of food expenses of 42.5 per cent of all the expenditures, Romania ranks 36th with 41.9 per cent, Belarus 35th with 40.8 per cent. Russia is on the 29th position with a 30.3 per cent of the spending going for food.

The population of Luxembourg, the United Kingdom and Switzerland spend only up to 10 per cent on food, of all money used for consumption.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in the third quarter, most expenditures were intended to meet the food consumption needs- 40.9 per cent. One person spends an average of 20.3 per cent of the total consumption expenditures on home care, and 10.2 per cent on clothing and footwear. Other expenses were directed to health services (5.8 per cent), transportation (5.1 per cent), communications (4.0 per cent), household equipment (3.8 per cent), education (0.8 per cent). The average consumption expenditure of the urban residents amounted to 2,242.5 lei per person monthly, respectively by 627.4 lei or 1.4-fold more than in rural areas.