This is a table that has generated a lot of comments on social networks: it is the comparative table of growth rates of the countries of the European Union for 2022. Belgium appears there in the very last position of the 27 member countries of the Union, with 2.7% growth announced. How to explain this red lantern? Déclic wanted to see it clearly.
What does this number refer to exactly?
This growth rate describes the evolution of the gross domestic product (GDP), an indicator which roughly quantifies the wealth produced by a country in one year. Here, the commission’s forecasts imagine that if we take Belgian GDP as a basis on January 1, 2022 and look at its evolution until December 31, it will have increased by 2.7%. Which still says nothing regarding the height of GDP in the end, nor regarding its starting level at the start of the year.
If we stop there, indeed, Belgium is the worst student in the class within the European Union. On the other hand, if we zoom out a bit and look at where Belgium was before the Covid crisis and where it should be, according to forecasts, in 2023, the perspective changes and so do the comparisons.
