Source: UNECE Statistical Database (www.unece.org/stats/data), Eurostat and CISSTAT

In 2016, the gross domestic product (GDP) of the European Union (EU) increased by 1.9 per cent compared to the previous year. GDP also grew in the USA by 1.6 per cent. In the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), GDP rose above 2015 figures by only a small margin.

Eight EU countries have not yet returned to GDP levels from before the financial crisis. Poland was the only EU country where GDP grew throughout the whole period from 2008 to 2016. During this period, GDP increased by more than 20 per cent in Ireland, Malta, Poland and Luxembourg. While the Baltic countries experienced the sharpest decrease in 2008, they have been among the EU countries with the highest GDP growth since 2011.

In 2016, the GDP growth rate was 5 per cent in Ireland, Malta and Romania, the highest in the EU. At the other end of the spectrum, GDP grew by roughly one per cent in France, Belgium and Italy, while Greece recorded zero growth. GDP did not diminish in any EU country.

In the USA, GDP has increased at stable annual rates of 1.6-2.6 per cent since 2010, with the lowest growth rates seen in 2011 and 2016.

Even though GDP barely grew in the CIS region in 2016, several CIS countries, particularly in Central Asia, experienced strong growth: 7.8 per cent in Uzbekistan; 6.9 per cent in Tajikistan; and 6.2 per cent in Turkmenistan. Despite these figures, the overall pace of growth in the region remained close to zero due to its largest economies, Russia and Kazakhstan. The most significant decrease in GDP was experienced in Azerbaijan (-3.1 per cent) and Belarus (-2.6 per cent).

The trends over recent years indicate steady and continued GDP growth in the EU and USA. In the CIS countries GDP stabilized after a drop in 2015, but is still below the level of 2013 and 2014.