European macroeconomic figures

The Economist published a very interesting macroeconomic figures comparing European countries regarding three main indicators; state of the economy, debt and growth. The indicators of the state of the economy portray GDP per capita, unemployment rate and youth unemployment. Not surprisingly, countries with the highest unemployment rate are Spain, Greece, Lithuania and Slovakia. Counties with the most envious youth unemployment rate are Austia, Netherlands, Germany and Slovenia. Debt indicators consist of public debt, budget balance and average debt. The most interesting figure in this respect is public debt. The economies with the most heavily indebted governments are Greece and Italy while the countries with the lowest indeptedness are Bulgaria and Estonia. The latter was one of the first counties that prohibited public sector borrowing. Growth indicators are divided into three parts; annual GDP changes, latest GDP and annual GDP forecast. The forecast suggests that the most favorable growth prospects are expected in Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden and Poland. Negative growth prospect are expected for Greece and Portugal. Overall, the aggregate figures suggest that macroeconomic future of Europe will bring several yet unexpected changes.