Domestic demand in selected euro and non-Euro countries, time series.
Dear Ezra, thank you for pointing out, in the comments to this blogpost, what the acronym ‘POS’ means, in the USA. Didn’t knew that. Does it mean the same in Great-Britain? And Australia? Anyway – there is a clear solution to your problem. The anomaly you perceive is increasing domestic demand (investments, private consumption, government consumption) in Bulgaria amid signs of impoverishment and crisis. The answer to the anomaly is that the upswing in Bulgaria takes place from a very low level (see the graph). There is an increase – but the level is still low. And to underscore my point of the previous blog (see link): Euro-austerity countries are doing much worse than non-Euro countries with problems.
Source: Eurostat, national accounts statistics, volume series
Leave a comment
—– look inside —– $5.94 / $20.00
—– look inside —– $4.90 / $8.00
—– look inside —– $15.99
—– look inside —– $5.99 / 12.99
—– look inside —– $5.93 / $12.99
—– look inside —– $4.97 / $9.90
—— Ugarteche, Puyana and Madi ——
Gerson Lima / Maria Alejandra Madi
Edward Fullbrook and Jamie Morgan
————— Michael Hudson ————–
Maria Alejandra Madi / Jack Reardon
————- Edward Fullbrook ————-
—————— Steve Keen —————–
————— Richard Smith —————
————– Gustavo Marques————
– Victor Beker and Beniamino Moro –
————– Lars Pålsson Syll ————-
—————– Stuart Birks —————-
Edward Fullbrook and Jamie Morgan
———— Armando Ochangco ———-
Shimshon Bichler / Jonathan Nitzan
————— Mauro Gallegati ————–
————— Herman Daly —————-
————— Asad Zaman —————
—————– C. T. Kurien —————
————— Robert Locke —————-
Real-World Economics Review Blog 
And what are the units on the y-axis? Billions? Percentage from baseline? etc
It is a volume series, as indicated in the title. Domestic demand in current prices (a nominal value in Euro) is divided by a price index, a dimensionless ratio, which more or less yields the monetary value of the amounts of products purchased, expressed in the prices of the base year. This is however rescaled (by Eurostat) by dividing the index by the level of this indicator in a specific year which yields a dimensionless ratio which is multiplied by 100. This is a called a volume index. Rescaling it nominal variable to a volume index enables better comparison between countries of different sizes and prosperity. A snag: in the end, any aggregated series of purchases or sales is in fact a weighted average of goods and services sold, with prices as weights. But when prices change, relative prices change too, i.e. weights change. Give me one hundred increasing prices and one declining price – and I can give you weights which show that the price level is decreasing! That’s the (unsolvable) index number problem of economists: what are the appropriate weights?