THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION REPORT. Europe in a period of transition

THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 70 Given that the only noticeable increase in economic momentum occurred between 2015 and 2017, reaching a peak of 2.8 percent GDP growth in 2017 in the EU or 2.6 percent in the euro area before declining again in the following two years, this is referred to as a lost or «wasted decade» from an economic point of view (Herzog-Stein et al., 2020, p. 18): «Consequently, in six of the seven largest economies, the average annual rate of growth turned out to be lower than in the period up to 2008» ( ibid .).The 6.0 percent fall in GDP in the course of the coronavirus crisis, due to lockdown measures and widespread uncertainty in the economy in the first year of the new decade, eclipses all previously considered re- cessions in terms of the severity of the downturn. The dynamics of growth and crisis over the period under review varied considerably across the EU Mem- ber States. GDP growth rates for selected countries in 2009 show particularly sharp declines in GDP for Estonia (-14.4 percent) and Finland (-8.1 percent) and below- average declines in growth for France and Spain when compared with the EU as a whole (see Table 1 ). The Iberian Peninsula was then hit by the euro crisis in 2010 and showed below-average growth rates up to 2014, with the 2012 downturn being the most severe at -3 percent of GDP. Italy was in a similar position but failed to recover in the second half of the decade. France also experienced consistently low and mostly below-average growth rates. On the other hand, after overcoming the global eco- nomic crisis, progress in Sweden, Estonia and Romania was stronger than in many neighbouring countries in the EU. The figures for Finland and Germany were mi- xed, with phases of strong and weak growth alternating more frequently. Both countries ended the decade with below-average growth rates in 2018 and 2019, but the extent to which they were affected by the economic Values Real GDP growth rate-volume Geopolitical entity (reporting) 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 Time / Geopolitical entity (reporting) Time frequency: Annual Unit of measure: Chain linked volumes, percentage change on previous period National accounts indicator (ESA 2010): Gross domestic producto at market prices European Union -27 countries (from 2020) Euro area -19 countries (from 2015) Source: Eurostat. Figure 1. Real GDP growth rate in the EU and euro area 2009-2020