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bne March 2019 Central Europe I 29
Czech capital Prague
is the seventh richest region in EU in 2017 in terms of GDP per capita bne IntelliNews
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HUNGARY
Hungarian PM unveils plans to boost birth rates, denounces migration in state of the nation address
Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced a seven-point family protection action plan to ad- dress Hungary's demographic crisis in his state of the nation address on February 10. Orban’s speech was widely seen as the start of the campaign rally for the European parliamentary elections and he resorted to well- known topics, bashing Brussels, warning of the risk of migration and mocking opposition parties. →
Hungary and the US sign defence cooperation agreement and agree
on acquisition of military equipment
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo kicked off a five-leg European tour in Budapest, where he signed a defence cooperation agreement and agreed on the sale of US mili- tary equipment. Pompeo also discussed the rule of law and the situation of civil organisa- tions in talks with NGOs. →
Prague remains the seventh richest region of the European Union in 2017 in terms of GDP per capita, same as in 2016, followed by Slovakia’s Bratislava, according to Eurostat data published on February 26.
Three quarters of the EU population live in regions where regional GDP per capita is above 75% of the EU average, Eurostat said in a press release
The leading regions in the ranking of regional GDP per capita in 2017 were Inner London – West with 626% of the average, Luxembourg with 253% and Southern in Ireland with 220%. Prague’s GDP per capita stood at 187% of the average in 2017, increase by 5 percentage points (pp) year-on-year. Bratislava’s figure decreased by 5pp
to 179% y/y.
Other Czech regions are lagging behind the European average, with the best results for the Central Bohemian Region with 84% followed by the South-East
region (with 81%). The lowest numbers were recorded in the Northwest Region of Karlovy Vary and Usti nad Labem Region with 63%.
There were 21 regions with GDP per capita 50% or more above the EU aver- age in 2017: five were in Germany, two each in Ireland, Austria, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom and one each in Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, France, Slovakia, Poland and Sweden as well as Luxembourg. Population living in these 21 regions is 52.3mn persons.
After North-West in Bulgaria (31% of the average), the lowest regions in the ranking were Mayotte in France and North-Central in Bulgaria (both 34%) and another region in Bulgaria: South- Central (35%). Among the 20 regions with GDP per capita below 50% of the EU average, five were in Bulgaria, four each in Greece and Hungary, three
in Poland, two each in France and Romania. Population in these 20 regions is 22.9 million persons, Eurostat said.
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