Eurozone GDP recorded an annual decline of 6.6% in 2020, compared to 1.3% growth in 2019, which despite being the largest contraction of the euro economy in the entire chain as a result of the pandemic, is one-tenth less than the previous estimate by the Office of Community Statistics, Eurostat. .
For its part, in the European Union as a whole, GDP contracted by 6.2% in 2020, in contrast to an expansion of 1.6% in 2019.
The Eurozone economy declined by 4.5% in 2009 as a result of the global financial crisis that caused the Great Recession, while the 27 GDP fell by 4.3% that year.
Between October and December, the Eurozone economy contracted by 0.7%, one-tenth more than expected, after having recovered by 12.5% in the third quarter, while declining by 4.9% compared to the fourth quarter of 2019.
On the 27th, GDP fell 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2020, after a record 11.6% expansion in the previous three months. In the yearly comparison, the European Union economy contracted by 4.6%.
Among the European Union countries, Romania and Malta recorded the highest quarterly increase in GDP between October and December 2020, at 4.8% and 3.8%, respectively; Ahead of Croatia and Greece, both by 2.7%; The most pronounced decline was observed in Ireland, at -5.1%, Austria -2.7%, followed by Italy with -1.9% and France at -1.4%.
Compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, the best development of the economy was in line with Ireland, dropping 0.2%, followed by Lithuania and Finland, with contraction of 1 and 1.4%, respectively.
On the other hand, the largest annual decline was observed in the fourth quarter in Spain, at -9.1%. Greece –7.9% and Croatia –7.1%.
