The chart above shows the annualized nominal gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate in each EU region over the past five years as of the fourth quarter of 2018 and the growth rate over the past ten years. The Northern EU is the only region whose growth rate was smaller over the past five years than it was over the past ten years.
Findings
- The difference between the region with the largest annualized five-year growth rate, the Eastern EU, and the region with the smallest, the Northern EU, is 3.41 percentage points.
- The difference between the region with the largest annualized ten-year growth rate, the Eastern EU, and the region with the smallest, the Southern EU, is 3.02 percentage points.
- Three regions' economies grew faster over the past five years than they did over the past ten years. One region's economy saw its economy grow slower over the past five years than it did over the past ten years.
Caveats
- Data is from the fourth quarters of 2008, 2013, and 2018.
- The data is seasonally adjusted in current euros.
- The data is annualized by multiplying the quarterly figure by four.
- All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
- The Eastern EU consists of Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
- The Western EU consists of Germany, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Ireland, and Luxembourg.
- The Southern EU consists of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus, and Malta.
- The Northern EU consists of Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.
Details
The Northern EU had the smallest increase over the past five years with an annualized growth rate of 2.51%. The Eastern EU had the largest growth with an annualized gain of 5.92%.
Over the past ten years, the Southern EU had the smallest growth with a 0.78% rise in GDP while the Eastern EU had the largest growth with a 3.80% rise in GDP.
The Northern EU saw the largest decrease in its growth rate between its annualized ten-year growth and its annualized five-year growth slowing its rate by 0.85 percentage points. The Eastern EU had the largest increase in its growth rate between its annualized ten-year growth and its annualized five-year growth raising its rate by 2.12 percentage points.
The Northern EU went from having a higher growth rate than each of the Southern and Western EU over the past ten years to a lower one over the past five years. The Northern EU had the smallest range in annualized five-year growth rates with a low of 1.86% in Sweden to a high of 3.13% in Denmark. Conversely, the Western EU had the greatest range in annualized five-year growth rates with a low of 2.31% in France to a high of 15.84% in Ireland. Over the past ten years, the Northern EU had the smallest range in growth rates with a low of 2.37% in Finland to a high of 4.46 in Sweden. The Southern EU on the other hand, had the greatest range of rates on a ten-year basis with a low of -2.27% in Greece to a high of 10.36% in Malta.