Richest countries benefit from the crisis

“See how the wealthiest countries profited from the euro crisis and the poor (like us) got even worse,” headlines i, after Eurostat revealed data on June 19 showing the GDP per capita of each European state in 2012.

The first preliminary estimates for 2012 presented by Eurostat, when compared by the Lisbon daily to 2009 figures, show that the richest countries, from the north and centre of the Eurozone became more wealthy, while the poorest member states, located mainly in the south, became poorer.

According to Eurostat, the euro area closed 2012 with a GDP per capita equivalent to 108 per cent of the EU average, compared to 2009, when the average was 109 per cent. But the divergent paths are even more noticeable when analysing the results by country, says i:

The Portuguese, for example, have gone from a GDP per capita of 80 per cent of the EU average in 2009, to 75 per cent in 2012. In Greece, the drop was even more abrupt, with a decline of 94 per cent to 75 per cent. Meanwhile, the Germans reinforced their purchasing power from 115 per cent of the EU average to 121 per cent, while the Austrians went from 125 per cent to 131 per cent.