Average annual GDP per capita growth rate in Europe 1950-1995, by region

The 1973-1975 Recession marked the end of the most economically prosperous period in modern European history. GDP per capita saw virtually uninterrupted growth across all regions of Europe for more than two decades. Between 1950 and 1973, GDP per capita grew by almost five percent each year in western Europe, and growth was between three and four percent in the Eastern Bloc. The recession had varying effects across the continent, impacting some countries (such as Poland) more severely than others; however, overall GDP per capita growth rates remained much lower over the subsequent 25 year period. In the Soviet Union and its successor states, the economic impact of dissolution, partition, and the transition to market economies meant that the period between 1989 and 1998 was particularly challenging from a financial perspective, with GDP per capita falling by 45 percent between these years, undoing much of the progress that had been made in previous decades.