Average annual change in private consumption in Europe in select periods 1980-1990

In Europe in either half of the 1980s, average annual private consumption (i.e. the total amount spent by consumers) increased from an average of 1.2 percent each year, to 3.4 percent. Consumerism increased in Southern Europe at a much higher rate than Western Europe, with the annual average in the second half of the decade larger than the earlier period by a factor of six.

Although consumerism did rise gradually in the second half of the century, the differences between either half of the 1980s were largely due to the recessions and economic instability caused by the oil shocks of the Middle East. By the second half of the 1980s, oil prices had recovered (from 36 U.S. dollars per barrel in 1981 to 11 dollars in 1986), and consumer price inflation dropped from approximately 10 to 14 percent in the early eighties to between three and five percent in later years.