ABSTRACT
Probably the most outstanding economic feature of the European continent as a whole in the two decades to 1970 was the sustained and high level of economic growth. After the initial post-war recovery, which by 1949-50 had brought most countries back to, or beyond, their pre-war output levels, a sustained rise in output and industrial production occurred in all regions - industrial western Europe, southern Europe (Greece, Portugal, Spain and Turkey), and the eastern sector. There were in fact few significant interruptions to progress and Europe’s advance was more rapid than that of the rest of the world. Between 1950 and 1970 European gross domestic product grew on average at about 5.5 per cent per annum and 4.4. per cent on a per capita basis, as against world average rates of 5.0 per cent and 3.0 per cent respectively. Industrial production rose even faster, at 7.1 per cent a year compared with a world rate of 5.9 per cent. Thus by the later date output per head in Europe was almost two and one half times greater than in 1950. The pace of advance contrasts sharply with the long-term rate of growth prior to 1950. According to Bairoch’s calculations, European income per capita growth barely reached 1 per cent per annum from 1800 through to 1950 as against 4.5 per cent since. In other words, in the generation from the late 1940s, per capita income had made greater progress than in the 150 years or so before 1950. It also compares very favourably with the post-war record of the United States, a country which emerged much stronger from the two world wars; after 1950 per capita output growth was only one half that of Europe at 2.2 per cent per annum. Only Japan of the major countries outperformed Europe in the 1950s and 1960s.
