The 2008 CIA World Factbook. United States. Central Intelligence Agency

technologically and economically than the other 15. Eleven established EU member states introduced the euro as their common currency on 1 January 1999 (Greece did so two years later), but the UK, Sweden, and Denmark chose not to participate. Of the 12 most recent member states, only Slovenia (1 January 2007) and Cyprus and Malta (1 January 2008) have adopted the euro; the remaining nine are legally required to adopt the currency upon meeting EU's fiscal and monetary convergence criteria.

      GDP (purchasing power parity):

      $14.43 trillion (2007 est.)

      GDP (official exchange rate):

      $16.62 trillion (2007 est.)

      GDP - real growth rate:

      3% (2007 est.)

      GDP - per capita (PPP):

      $32,700 (2007 est.)

      GDP - composition by sector:

      agriculture: 2.1% industry: 27.1% services: 70.7% (2006 est.)

      Labor force:

      222.7 million (2006 est.)

      Labor force - by occupation:

      agriculture: 4.4% industry: 27.1% 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:

      note - see individual country entries of member states

      Household income or consumption by percentage share:

      lowest 10%: 2.8% highest 10%: 25.2% (2001 est.)

      Distribution of family income - Gini index:

      30.7 (2003 est.)

      Investment (gross fixed):

      21.5% of GDP (2006 est.)

      Fiscal year:

      NA

      Inflation rate (consumer prices):

      1.8% (2006 est.)

      Central bank discount rate:

      5% note: This is the European Central Bank's rate on the marginal lending facility, which offers overnight credit to banks from the Eurosystem (31 December 2007)

      Commercial bank prime lending rate:

      8.03% (31 December 2007)

      Stock of money:

      $5.742 trillion note: this is the quantity of money, M1, for the Euro Area, converted into US dollars at the exchange rate for the date indicated; it excludes the stock of money carried by non-Eurozone members of the European Union

      Stock of quasi money:

      $10.93 trillion note: this is the quantity of quasi money, M2, for the Euro Area, converted into US dollars at the exchange rate for the date indicated; it excludes the stock of quasi money carried by non-Eurozone members of the European Union

      Stock of domestic credit:

      $20.94 trillion note: this figure refers to the Euro area only; it excludes credit data for members of the EU outside the Eurozone (31 December 2007)

      Agriculture - products:

      wheat, barley, oilseeds, sugar beets, wine, grapes; dairy products, cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry; fish

      Industries:

      among the world's 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:

      3.2% (2006 est.)

      Electricity - production:

      3.056 trillion kWh (2007 est.)

      Electricity - consumption:

      2.858 trillion kWh (2007 est.)

      Electricity - exports:

      NA kWh

      Electricity - imports:

      NA kWh

      Oil - production:

      2.674 million bbl/day (2007)

      Oil - consumption:

      14.39 million bbl/day (2007)

      Oil - exports:

      6.979 million bbl/day (2001)

      Oil - imports:

      17.71 million bbl/day (2001)

      Oil - proved reserves:

      6.144 billion bbl (1 January 2008)

      Natural gas - production:

      197.8 billion cu m (2007 est.)

      Natural gas - consumption:

      500.1 billion cu m (2007 est.)

      Natural gas - exports:

      76.48 billion cu m (2005 est.)

      Natural gas - imports:

      361.2 billion cu m (2005 est.)

      Natural gas - proved reserves:

      2.476 trillion cu m (1 January 2008 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

      Market value of publicly traded shares:

      $11.64 trillion (2006)

      Currency (code):

      euro, British pound, Bulgarian lev, Czech koruna, Danish krone, Estonian kroon, Hungarian forint, Latvian lat, Lithuanian litas, Polish zloty, Romanian leu, Slovak koruna, Swedish krona

      Currency code:

      EUR

      Exchange rates:

      euros per US dollar - 0.7345 (2007), 0.7964 (2006), 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004), 0.886 (2003)

      Communications

       European Union