Brussels, 14/08/2001 (Agence Europe) - According to a report published by Eurostat on 13 August, after having stagnated in 1999, the countries candidates for European Union membership experienced strong growth in 2000, by an average of 5% at constant prices (compared to 3.3% in the EU). Here are the details: - Turkey: 7.2%: - Latvia: 6.6%; - Estonia 6.4%; - Bulgaria: 5.2%; Hungary: 5.2%; - Cyprus: 4.8%; - Slovenia: 4.6%; - Poland: 4%; - Lithuania 3.3%; - Czech Republic: 3.1%; - Slovakia: 2.2%; - Romania 1.6%.
Eurostat notes that, expressed "Purchasing Power Standards", the per capita GDP was highest in Cyprus (82% of the EU average) and Slovenia (71%), countries which were close to or higher than those of Greece (68%), Portugal (74%) and Spain (81%). In the Czech Republic, this percentage attained 58%, in Malta 53%, Hungary 52%, whereas at the other end of the scale, five countries had a per capital GDP of less than 30% of that of the EU: Bulgaria (24%), Romania and Turkey (27%), Lithuania and Latvia (29%).
In addition, between 1996 and 2000, the highest rises in per capita GDP compared to the EU average were recorded in Hungary (46 to 52%), Slovenia (66 to 71%), Estonia (33 to 37%) and Latvia (25 to 29%), whereas the steepest decreases were in the Czech Republic (65 to 58%) and Romania (33 to 27%).