If you're looking at your bank balance worriedly every few minutes as Christmas approaches, then you might not be the only one in Ireland doing so, as it turns out that we have less disposable income than our European neighbours. 

Latest figures from Eurostat show that the Irish are lagging behind the majority of our European neighbours when it comes to Active Individual Consumption (AIC) per capita (i.e. having spare cash, and therefore spending power) and with Christmas on the horizon that squeeze may be more evident now than at any other time of the year. 

According to The Journal, Ireland sits 6% below the European-wide average when it comes to how much walking around money we've got, while our nearest neighbours in the UK are much better off, as they're 15% above the average.

Other countries where they're flush with money are Austria, who are 20% above average, and Germany, with a nice 22% above the average amount of cash in their pockets. The place where we're relocating to next, however, is Luxembourg, where they have 36% more spare dosh than the European average.

On the other end of the scale were Portugal, Spain and Greece who were shown to be below average, and all worse than our 6% below. All those countries have been hit hard by the crisis, of course, with Spain showing a 10% difference to their European neighbours, Portugal being 16% below average and Greece coming in at 17% below. However, the lowest of the European nations is Bulgaria, who are a whopping 51% below the average. 

Via The Journal/Eurostat