Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total value of everything an economy produces. We show two related things.
Nominal GDP (EUR millions) — the headline size of the economy in today's prices.
Real growth (% year-on-year, and quarter-on-quarter) — how much the economy grew after stripping out inflation. This is the figure that tells you whether the country is genuinely getting richer.
Why real, not nominal
Nominal GDP can rise simply because prices rose. Real growth removes that effect, so a positive number means more actual output. Two consecutive quarters of negative real growth is the common rule-of-thumb definition of a recession.
The bigger picture
EU real growth has tended to run slower than the United States for two decades. Comparing the growth series across regions is the heart of the "is the EU falling behind?" question.
Source: Eurostat national accounts (annual and quarterly).