The gross domestic product (GDP) of the European Union in the first quarter of 2020 fell compared to the first quarter of 2019 by 2.6 percent, while the GDP of the Eurozone in the same period decreased by 3.1 percent, Eurostat announced today.
The Statistical Office states that the total economic activity of the entire EU in the first three months of 2020 is lower by 3.6 percent compared to the period October-December 2019.
The seasonally adjusted decline, which measures the economic activity of the first quarter of 2020 in relation to the last quarter of 2019, amounted to 3.2 percent.
It is the most drastic decline at the inter-quarter level since 1995, when Eurostat monitored data on the country’s total GDP, while the decline compared to the same quarter last year was the largest since the global financial crisis in 2009.
We remind you that the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, and the Minister of Finance, Sinisa Mali, have repeatedly said that the domestic economy will have the highest growth on the continent, which the Republic Bureau of Statistics recently calculated to amount to 5% year-on-year.
By analyzing that time series, the Serbian economy had the best results of all the members of the European Union, and the only one that recorded similar results was Ireland, which increased by 4.5 percent compared to the first quarter of 2019.
On the other hand, if we look at seasonally adjusted data, which compare the first quarter of 2020 with the last in 2019, seven countries have higher economic growth or smaller decline than Serbia: Bulgaria, Ireland, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden. .
These data indicate that the significant growth compared to the previous year is due to the below-average base compared to the rest of the continent.
Among the Member States for which data are available for the first quarter of the current year, Ireland, Bulgaria, Romania and Sweden are still recording positive growth compared to the previous quarter, while GDP fell in all other EU Member States.
The largest seasonally adjusted decline was recorded in France and Italy (both 5.3%), as well as Spain and Slovakia (both 5.2%), Nova Ekonomija.
