GDP in European Union down 6.4% in 2020
Seasonally adjusted Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell by 0.6% in the euro area and by 0.4% in the European Union as a whole in Q4 2020 from Q3, according to the final data of the statistical office Eurostat.
From the same quarter a year ago, seasonally-adjusted GDP fell in 2020 Q4 by 5% in the euro area and by 4.8% in the EU as a whole.
Throughout 2020, the decline in GDP in the euro area amounted to 6.8%, and in the entire EU, the decline amounted to 6.4%.
Employment fell 1.7% in the EU during 2020, or 3.4 million jobs; the U.S. lost 8.9 million jobs despite a milder recession.
The most serious downturns were felt in Spain, with GDP down 11% in 2020; and France, with an 8.3% fall. Ireland bucked the trend with estimated growth of 3.6% - the only EU economy to grow in 2020.
This compares to a 3.5% drop in the U.S., a fall of around 7% in Latin America, and a 9.9% plunge in the U.K.
China's GDP growth slumped to 2.3% - the slowest since the 1989 Tiananmen crisis.
At: https://wbj.pl/gdp-in-european-union-down-almost-65procent-in-2020/post/129842
A line outside an unemployment office in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, last year.
Spain's 11% collapse in GDP - the worst since the 1936-39 Civil War - was the most severe among the EU's 27 nations.
For the EU, this was the deepest annual contraction (-6.4%) since World War II. Even in 2009 the contraction was only 4.3%, Eurostat said.
