BACK TO HOME PAGE

EUROPEAN REVIEW

ISSUE 5 - Page 9

Stats and facts

Industrial Production

In the latest period (June - August) for which figures are available strong growth was recorded by Ireland, Belgium, Denmark and Greece.Production fell slightly in France and Luxembourg. The United Kingdom figure was identical to the EU average but below the Eurozone average (those countries joining the single currency in 1999).

Country	%	Country	%
Ireland*	2.5	Eurozone average	1.0
Belgium*	2,3	Finland	1.0
Denmark	2.2	EU average	0.6
Greece	2.1	UK*	0.6
Austria*	1.5	Netherlands	0.2
Sweden	1.5	Italy	0.1
Spain*	1.2	France	-0.2
Germany	1.1	Luxembourg	-0.7
Portugal	1.1
		USA**	0.6
		Japan**	-2.9

Figures are for increase of June - August over March - May except *Eurostat estimates and ** increase of April - June over Jan - March. Industrial production is defined as production volume of total industry - excluding construction - adjusted for seasonal and one-off fluctuations.

Gross Domestic Product

(see definition on page 5)

Figures produced by Eurostat for the first half of this year show that GDP is still rising in most EU countries. The table shows the percentage change between October - December, 1997 and January - March, 1998 (Q1) and between the latter period and April - June, 1998 (Q2).Comparison with non-EU countries shows the USA with greater growth while Japan is still in recession.

Country	%change Q1	%change Q2
Belgium	1.2	0.6
Denmark	0.8	0.2
Finland	0.9	1.1
France	0.7	0.6
Germany	1.3	-0.5
Italy	-0.1	0.4
Netherlands	1.1	0.8
Sweden	-1.2	2.2
Spain	0.9	0.9
UK	0.8	-1.4
EU average	0.7	0.3
Canada	0.8	0.4
USA	1.4	0.5
Japan	-1.3	-0.8

Figures are not available for the other EU countries.

Social spending in EU Member States

A NEW report from Eurostat highlights the big differences that exist between countries with respect to expenditure on social protection (i.e. pensions, health care, disability, unemployment etc.). Taking price levels and population sizes into account Luxembourg spends more than three times as much on social protection as Greece. When viewed as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product such expenditure ranges from over 35% in Sweden to under 20% in Ireland.

Member State	PPS	GDP	Member State	PPS	GDP
Luxembourg	7725	25.3	Finland	5037	32.8
Denmark	6391	34.3	EU average	4831	28.4
Sweden	6061	35.6	United Kingdom	4543	27.7
Germany	5797	29.4	Italy	4491	24.6
Netherlands	5762	31.6	Ireland	3165	19.9
Austria	5669	29.7	Spain	2914	21.9
Belgium	5610	29.7	Portugal	2313	20.7
France	5524	30.6	Greece	2250	20.7

In the table above social protection expenditure is given in PPS (spending per person in purchasing power standards) and as a percentage of GDP.

Back to	Forward to	Up to
FRONT PAGE	NEXT PAGE	TOP OF THIS PAGE