European Union
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| Introduction - European Union: | | Location - European Union: | | People - European Union: | | Government - European Union: | | Economy - European Union: | Economy overview | Internally, the EU is attempting to lower trade barriers, adopt a common currency, and move toward convergence of living standards. Internationally, the EU aims to bolster Europes trade position and its political and economic power. Because of the great differences in per capita income among member states (from $7,000 to $69,000) and historic national animosities, the EU faces difficulties in devising and enforcing common policies. For example, since 2003 Germany and France have flouted the member states treaty obligation to prevent their national budgets from running more than a 3% deficit. In 2004 and 2007, the EU admitted 10 and two countries, respectively, that are, in general, less advanced technologically and economically than the other 15. Twelve established EU member states introduced the euro as their common currency on 1 January 1999, but the UK, Sweden, and Denmark chose not to participate. Of the 12 most recent member states, only Slovenia has adopted the euro (1 January 2007); the remaining 11 are legally required to adopt the currency upon meeting EUs fiscal and monetary convergence criteria. | | Gdp purchasing power parity | $13.06 trillion (2006 est.) | | Gdp official exchange rate | $13.73 trillion (2006 est.) | | Gdp real growth rate | 3.1% (2006 est.) | | Gdp per capita ppp | $29,900 (2006 est.) | | Gdp composition by sector | agriculture: 2.1% industry: 27.3% services: 70.5% (2006 est.) | | Labor force | 222.7 million (2005 est.) | | Labor force by occupation | agriculture: 4.3%
industry: 27.2%
services: 67.1%
note: the remainder is in miscellaneous public and private sector industries and services (2002 est.) | | Unemployment rate | 8.5% (2006 est.) | | Population below poverty line | see individual country listings | | Household income or consumption by percentage share | lowest 10%: 2.9% highest 10%: 25.4% (1995 est.) | | Distribution of family income gini index | 31.3 (2003 est.) | | Inflation rate consumer prices | 1.8% (2006 est.) | | Investment gross fixed | 20.4% of GDP (2006 est.) | | Agriculture products | wheat, barley, oilseeds, sugar beets, wine, grapes; dairy products, cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry; fish | | Industries | among the worlds largest and most technologically advanced, the European Union industrial base includes: ferrous and non-ferrous metal production and processing, metal products, petroleum, coal, cement, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, rail transportation equipment, passenger and commercial vehicles, construction equipment, industrial equipment, shipbuilding, electrical power equipment, machine tools and automated manufacturing systems, electronics and telecommunications equipment, fishing, food and beverage processing, furniture, paper, textiles, tourism | | Industrial production growth rate | 2.6% (2006 est.) | | Electricity production | 2.997 trillion kWh (2004 est.) | | Electricity consumption | 2.822 trillion kWh (2004 est.) | | Electricity exports | NA | | Electricity imports | NA | | Oil production | 3.115 million bbl/day (2004) | | Oil consumption | 14.68 million bbl/day (2004) | | Oil exports | NA | | Oil imports | NA | | Oil proved reserves | 7.55 billion bbl (2005) | | Natural gas production | 238.2 billion cu m (2004) | | Natural gas consumption | 506.9 billion cu m (2004 est.) | | Natural gas exports | 78.89 billion cu m (2001) | | Natural gas imports | 347.7 billion cu m (2001) | | Natural gas proved reserves | 3.219 trillion cu m (1 January 2005 est.) | | Current account balance | $NA | | Exports | $1.33 trillion; note - external exports, excluding intra-EU trade (2005) | | Exports commodities | machinery, motor vehicles, aircraft, plastics, pharmaceuticals and other chemicals, fuels, iron and steel, nonferrous metals, wood pulp and paper products, textiles, meat, dairy products, fish, alcoholic beverages. | | Exports partners | US 23.3%, Switzerland 7.6%, Russia 5.2%, China 4.8% (2006) | | Imports | $1.466 trillion; note - external imports, excluding intra-EU trade (2005) | | Imports commodities | machinery, vehicles, aircraft, plastics, crude oil, chemicals, textiles, metals, foodstuffs, clothing | | Imports partners | US 13.8%, China 13.4%, Russia 8.2%, Japan 6.2% (2006) | | Reserves of foreign exchange and gold | $NA | | Currency code | euro, British pound, Bulgarian lev, Cypriot pound, Czech koruna, Danish krone, Estonian kroon, Hungarian forint, Latvian lat, Lithuanian litas, Maltese lira, Polish zloty, Romanian leu, Slovak koruna, Swedish krona | | Exchange rates | euros per US dollar - 0.7964 (2006), 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003), 1.0626 (2002) | |
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This page was last updated on 16 September, 2007
Source: CIA >>> |
