United Kingdom is first European consumer credit market - Last November, the French consumer credit specialist, Sofinco, published a consumer credit market study in Europe. The study examined the market up to the end of 2006 in 24 European countries (the 13 eurozone countries and United Kingdom, Sweden, Poland, Norway, Denmark, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovakia and Bulgaria). The main results are as follows: 1) the eurozone accounts for €679bn, 64% of the European total of €1060bn (slightly more than a third of the world market). Over the last five years (2001-06), there was sustained annual average growth in this sector (+7.4%); 2) the United Kingdom is the biggest consumer credit market in Europe, accounting for €233bn, 22% of the European total, closely followed by Germany (€228 billion). These two alone account for a total of €461bn, 44% of the European total (these two countries account for 29% of the European population). In third position comes France (€131bn); fourth place, Spain (€92bn) and in fifth place, Italy (€85.6bn). These five countries account for 84% of the total amount in the eurozone and United Kingdom; the Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway and Sweden) account for €78bn, 7.4% of the European total; 4) Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia) is growing fast, although it currently only accounts for €69bn, 6.5% of the total; 5) Southern European countries are seeing their average annual growth in this market grow swiftly: 27.3% for Greece between 2003-06, 18.6% in Italy and 18.3% in Spain; 7) the per capita average is €2,161 but sharp disparities exist: using consumer credit is widespread in Northern countries, especially Norway (€6,159 per capita), Ireland (€4,923), United Kingdom (€3,844) and Sweden (€3,771). Consumer credit is still less widely used in Eastern Europe (a per capita average of €700), especially in Romania (€412) and Bulgaria (€420). Croatia, on the other hand, has an average per capita of €1,696, which is higher than that of Belgium (€1,572) and Italy (€1,472); 8) developments over the 2001-06 period in Southern Europe (Greece, Italy and Spain) have seen sharp per capita growth, with annual average growth of 27.3%, 18.6% and 18.3% respectively. Ireland and Slovenia have also undergone sustained growth in this market (+17.6% and 15.3%).