V4 Regional GDP Breakup

The chart below shows the relative economic strength of the V4 countries in a regional breakup. Almost all the regions of the Visegrad Group are below the EU27 average (€24,500) considering the GDP per capita. The only exception is Prague with an €26,500 GDP per capita

From the left-hand side to the right-hand side it is visible, that the Czech Republic is generally richer than the rest of the V4. The economic power or the non-capital regions of Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are almost identical. Bratislava, Budapest and Warsaw metropolitan areas stand out from their countries but still remain below the 75% of EU27 which is the limit for EU Cohesion Fund eligibility. For comparison: the richest NUTS-2 level (statistical) region, Inner London, has a localized domestic product that is 334% of the EU27 average. The poorest, Severozapaden (Bulgaria) has the economic strengths of 26% of the EU27 regional average.

The EU's 20 poorest regions are almost exclusively located in Bulgaria and Romania, however, five Polish and four Romanian regions count into this group.

From an investor's point of view these regions still have a large growth potential. Except for Prague, these regions are eligible for all EU aid, and many of these relatively poor regions have also shown the highest growth rates before the economic crisis.