Flash estimate for the second quarter of 2011 showed an increase of Gross Domestic Product both in the Euro are and the European Union as a whole of 0.2% and 1.7% respectively, compared to same data of the previous quarter. These figures are also higher that those released for the first quarter of the year when GDP increase registered 0.8%.

Compared with GDP estimates released in the second quarter of 2010, seasonally adjusted GDP increased by 1.7% in both zones in the second quarter of 2011, after 2.5% surplus in both zones in the previous quarter.

According to the last figures released by the statistical office of the European Union Eurostat for the countries where data are available, highest GDP increase was registered in Lithuania (5.9%) followed by Latvia (5.7%) and Sweden (5.3%). Estonia, where percentage change was calculated from non-seasonally adjusted data, recorded a 8.4% increase.

On the contrary, Portugal represented the only decrease in GDP with -0.9% variation. Although the rest of the data were positive, the smallest variation were registered in Romania (0.3%), United Kingdom  and Spain (0.7%) and Italy (0.8%).

In international terms, GDP increase was higher in the European Union than in the United States of America where it increased by 0.3% compared with the previous quarter (after 0.1% increase in the first quarter of 2011). In Japan GDP fell by 0.3% in the second quarter of 2011 (after 0.9% decrease).