Preparing this rant about the widening milkyway between Eurozone economic growth and Euro production in the ECB and its printing presses spread evenly amongst Euro members proves one more time that the absoluteness of financial math and official figures are 2 pairs of shoes. Calculating GDP growth in the so called single market begins with problems of the data source.
GRAPH: According to data from the EU commission - the non-elected quick intervention troup towering above the European Parliament - I arrive at a total real GDP growth of 19,64% for the period from 2000 to 2008. Chart courtesy of tradingeconomics.com
Harmonization at even the most important levels like data integrity is a goal still to be attained, comparing the EU Commissions data with those of Eurostat, the EU's official statistical office.
GRAPH: GDP growth figures for the Eurozone's 15 members (Slovakia only joined this year) come in a tad smaller according to Eurostat. According to Eurostat's figures total GDP growth from 2000 to 2008 was 18,98% in real terms. Chart courtesy of Eurostat
I would have loved to provide readers with the absolute difference between these two official figures in nominal Euro figures (certainly many many billions,) but such are not available. Browsing
Eurostat's and the
EU commission's websites does not yield this information.
I would prefer nominal GDP figures as I have been having a problem with the dichotomy between the EU's/ECB's "official" inflation figures that diverge widely from the real devaluation of the Euro since its inception in 2001 for consumers (corporate and government accounts were converted a year earlier.)
Based on continuously changing consumer baskets in all Euro member countries I am reminded of Winston Churchill's quote that he only believed statistics he had falsified himself. Read more on the issue of juggling inflation figures in
this earlier post. Although it deals mostly with US inflation figures you should get an idea of the manifold tricks invented to hide true inflation.
My anecdotal evidence stemming from criss-crossing the old world concludes that prices have effectively doubled in the last 10 years. This is a crass disparity to Eurostat's official figures.
GRAPH: Annual Eurozone Inflation according to Eurostat from 2000 to 2008.
