20 Years of the Euro: Winners and Losers

Dr. Matthias Kullas

20 years after the introduction of the euro, cep has analysed which countries have gained from the euro and which ones have lost out. This involved an analysis of how high the per-capita GDP of a specific eurozone country would have been if the euro had not been introduced.

cepStudy

In its analysis, cep comes to the conclusion that Germany has gained most from the introduction of the euro: almost € 1.9 trillion between 1999 and 2017. This amounts to around € 23,000 per inhabitant. Otherwise, only the Netherlands has gained substantial benefits from the introducing the euro. In most of the other countries analysed, the euro has resulted in a drop in prosperity: € 3.6 trillion in France and as much as € 4.3 trillion in Italy. In France, this amounts to € 56,000 per capita and in Italy € 74,000.

The study encountered a highly sensitive political environment and consequently prompted a large number of reactions. We therefore take this opportunity to clarify the following points:

Statement on reactions to the study 20 years of euro