According to flash estimates released on February 12 by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, in the last quarter of 2009 the gross domestic product (GDP) of the European Union member states (EU-27) rose by 0.1 percent quarter on quarter. In the third quarter the economy of the EU-27 had expanded by 0.3 percent from the previous quarter.
Accordingly, in comparison with the same quarter of the previous year, seasonally adjusted GDP in the EU-27 declined in the last quarter of 2009 by 2.3 percent, after a year-on-year decrease of 4.3 percent in the previous quarter.
In the last quarter of 2009, among member states for which seasonally adjusted GDP data are available, Estonia recorded the highest growth rate with an increase of 2.6 percent compared with the previous quarter, followed by Slovakia with two percent and France with 0.6 percent.
In the given period, among the main economies of the EU, GDP increased by 0.4 percent in Austria, rose by 0.1 percent in the UK, it remained unchanged in Germany, decreased by 0.1 percent in Spain and was down 0.2 percent in Italy, all compared to Q3 2009.