Cyprus household expenses on utilities among the lowest in Europe

Expenses for housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels took up 16.6% of Cypriot household budgets in 2015, significantly lower than the 25% European average.

This figure represents a total of approximately €2.24 billion in Cyprus, a 2.4% increase since 2005.

Cyprus finds itself with the third lowest relative average for household expenditure in those categories after Malta (10.1%) and Lithuania (15.8%).

Cyprus is followed by Estonia (18%), Bulgaria, Portugal and Slovenia (18.8%) and Hungary (19.1%).

According to Eurostat, the ‘housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels’ category constitutes the largest household budgetary expense in the European Union, with Denmark leading with 29.4%, followed by Finland (28.2%) and France (26.4%)

For the period 2005-2015, expenses in this category rose in most EU member states with Spain leading at 5.6%, Ireland (5%) and Portugal (4.5%), while in Slovakia it dropped by 1.3%, Sweden (1%) and Malta (0.9%).

Estonia is the only country in the EU that has kept average household expenses in this category stable over the same 11-year period.

Source: InCyprus