Eurostat: 22% of EU population were expected to face poverty in 2022

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
14 Jun 2023 15:30

Eurostat released a report revealing that European Union countries are increasingly faced with risks of poverty and social exclusion based on a 2022 study.

A protestor carries a poster, during a demonstration to demand solutions for Portugal's housing crisis, in Lisbon, Saturday, April 1, 2023. (AP)

Eurostat, the European Union's statistical office, revealed, on Wednesday, that a report conducted in 2022 showed that about 22% of the EU population had been at risk of poverty throughout last year.

In a statement, Eurostat noted that "In 2022, 95.3 million people in the EU (22% of the population) were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, i.e. lived in households experiencing at least one of the three poverty and social exclusion risks: risk of poverty, severe material and social deprivation, and/or living in a household with very low work intensity."

According to the report, countries that faced the highest risk of poverty were reported in Romania with 34% of the population at risk, Bulgaria at 32%, and Greece and Spain both at 26%.

The lowest poverty rates among the population were reported in the Czech Republic at 12%, Slovenia at 13%, and Poland at only 16%.

Similar values were recorded in 2021 when around 95.4 million people in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, the statement read.

Eurozone entered technical recession: EuroStat

After two consecutive quarters of negative growth in real GDP, the Eurozone has officially entered recession, data from the EU’s statistics agency Eurostat reveals.

In the last quarter of 2022, GDP had decreased by 0.1% in the Euro area, and in the first quarter of 2023, the agency reported that the economy had shrunk by 0.1%.

Spending by households in the Eurozone fell by 0.3% in the first quarter of 2023 and by 1% in the fourth quarter of 2022. Moreover, revised data showed that the region's fourth quarter in 2022 was adjusted from 0% to -0.1%.

The revision was made in April before which it was revealed that the economy grew by 0.1% in this year's first quarter. It is worth recalling that on May 2, Germany, Europe's largest economy, confirmed it had fallen into recession.

The energy crisis, which was born out of sanctions on Russia, Europe's gas lifeline had spiraled into a cost-of-living crisis with inflation plaguing the Euro economies.

According to the data, countries that recorded the highest GDP increase include Poland (+3.8%) in comparison to the previous quarter. Luxembourg recorded a 2.0% increase and Portugal recorded a 1.6% increase.

Those who recorded the highest decrease include Ireland with a 4.6% decrease, Lithuania with a 2.1% decrease, and the Netherlands with 0.7%.

Employment continued to increase in the Eurozone by 0.6% in the first quarter of 2023, up from 0.3% in the previous quarter.

"Based on seasonally adjusted figures, Eurostat estimates that in the first quarter of 2023, 216.1 million people were employed in the EU, of which 168.2 million were in the euro area," Eurostat said in its latest report.

Predictions of a recession in the Eurozone go back as far as the first months which followed the start of the conflict in Ukraine. However, in November 2022, the EU Commission published a report titled 'Autumn 2022 Economic Forecast: The EU Economy at a turning point, where it projected a recession nearing ahead.