Greeks and Irish suffer major income loss
Greece and Ireland were the European Union?s major losers in terms of income generated in 2010, according to figures released on Tuesday by Eurostat, the EU?s official statistics agency, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The losses were triggered by the crises plaguing both countries? debt-ridden economies.
Another country which was badly hit in 2010 was Great Britain, while Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Finland saw significant increases in their per capita GDP. The big winner, however, was Luxembourg, whose per capita GDP rose to 283 percent of the EU average at the end of 2010. This was up from 272 percent at the end of 2009.
Last year, Ireland took third place with a GDP per capita of 127 percent of the EU average. A year later, the figure slipped to 125 percent, while it is expected to fall even more this year. Meanwhile, Greece?s per capita income fell to 89 percent of the EU average at the end of 2010, down from 94 percent at the end of 2009. Back in 2002, the country?s GDP per capita had been 90 percent of the EU average.
Meanwhile, countries that fared well in 2010 included Germany, whose GDP per capita rose to 119 percent of the average, 3 percent up from 2009 and the Netherlands, where GDP per capita rose to 134 percent of the EU average, up from 131 percent in the previous year.
