European Household Saving Stable In Q3

Household income remained stable in Europe in the third quarter of 2012 with the gross saving rate of households at 11.2% (compared with 11.1% in Q2) in the EU27 and 13% (12.9%) in the euro area.

The gross investment rate of households was 8% (8.1%) in the EU27 and 8.9% (8.9%) in the euro area. In nominal terms, the euro area household income increased by 0.3% and consumption by 0.2% while investment fell by 0.3%. Household income per capita fell by 0.3% as nominal income per capita increased by 0.2% but prices increased by 0.5%. Household consumption per capita decreased by 0.4%.

Fall In Household Consumption

Household final consumption expenditure fell by 0.8% during the second quarter of 2011.

The biggest contributions to the negative growth were from the transport and food sectors. Positive contributions came from clothing and footwear and miscellaneous.

Shares Of Renewable Energy In Total Consumption

Renewable energy seems to have contributed 10.3% of gross final energy consumption in the EU27 in 2008. It compares with 9.7% in 2007 and 8.8% in 2006. Individual targets are set for all Member States by the 2009 Directive so that the EU will reach a target of 20% share of total energy consumption for renewable energy sources by 2020.

Renewable energy shares vary widely among Member States. Sweden had the highest share of renewable energy in total consumption in 2008 with 44.4%, Finland had 30.5%, Latvia had 29.9%, Austria 28.5% and Portugal had 23.2%. The lowest was Malta with 0.2%. The UK was third lowest with 2.2% of renewable energy in total consumption. All Member States increased their share of renewable energy in total consumption between 2006-8. The largest increases were in Austria from 24.8% to 28.5%, Estonia from 16.1% to 19.1%, Romania from 17.5% to 20.4%, Portugal from 20.5% to 23.2% and Slovakia from 6.2% to 8.4%.

GDP Figures Revised Down Again

The figure for GDP volume for the fourth quarter of 2009 has been revised again to 0.4% from 0.3% last month. The chained volume GDP index for Q4 was 100.9 and 100.4 for Q3. At current market prices the GDP index was 112.6 and in Q3 it was 111.3. In 2009 as a whole volume of GDP fell by 4.9%. Total volume of production rose by 0.4% and manufacturing output volume by 0.8%. The agricultural sector ouput fell by 1.5% compared with the previous quarter. Construction output decreased by 0.9% and services increased by 0.5%.

The household saving ratio was 7% compared with 8.4% in the last quarter. Real household disposable income fell by 1%. In terms of expenditure categories gross domestic expenditure increased by 0.8%, household final consumption increased by 0.4% and government final consumption increased by 1%. The volume of household spnding is now 2.1% lower than in 2008. Government final consumption for the year 2009 increased by by 2.2%. The GDP deflator at market prices increased by 0.7% and is 1.4% above the level it was at in 2008.

Gross fixed capital formation fell by 2.7% partly due to a fall in business investment of 4.3%. General goverment investment increased by 2.8%, existing buildings and dwellings in public corporations fell by 71.3% and in the private sector existing buildings and dwellings increased by 10.3%. Over the year as a whole gross fixed capital formation decreased by 14.9% compared with -3.5% in 2008.

Defra Slaughter Statistics

The numbers of cattle, sheep and pigs slaughtered in the UK were released by Defra today. Cattle slaughterings are up 2% to 163,000 head, sheep 15% lower at 773,000 and pigs were 4% higher at 704,000 in February 2010 than they were in February 2009.

The monthly volumes of meat produced UK show that 71,000 tonnes of beef, 18,000 tonnes of mutton and lamb and 58,000 tonnes of pigmeat were produced in the UK in February. These statistics refer to meat produced for human consumption in the UK but includes livestock imported into the UK for slaughter.

In addition to all the 'clean' meat slaughterings, 43,000 tonnes of meat was produced from cows and adult bulls, 4,000 tonnes from calves, 136,000 tonnes of ewe and ram meat and 18,000 tonnes of boar and sow meat was produced.