Where Are Disposable Incomes (Barely) Increasing?
Prior to the coronavirus epidemic, the OECDs rise in disposable incomes  the money left in peoples pockets after theyve met their fundamental necessities  was highly disparate. Eastern European countries such as Poland, Estonia, and Lithuania witnessed some of the most significant improvements, but Costa Rica, the OECDs newest member, outperformed them all. People in this country had 7.5 percent more spending money per year than those in Poland, which had only 6%. With the exception of Ireland, whose disposable incomes increased by 5% in 2019, Western European countries did not see similar rises. Italy saw the smallest gain of 0.2 percent, while Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and South Africa all narrowly surpassed 1%. The United Kingdom, Germany, and France did slightly better, approaching 2%, but were still outperformed by non-European countries like South Korea and the United States in terms of discretionary income growth.