The Sunday Times, February 3, 2026:
The French are falling behind the north Europeans and are being caught up by those in the east. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Poles will be richer than them within ten years.
While small countries such as Luxembourg and Ireland have a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita that is more than double the European average, if that average is set at 100 then Germany, the bloc’s biggest economy, is ranked at 116, the UK is 99 and France is 98, according to Eurostat’s figures for 2024, the latest available.
As for the Italians, who were 10.1 per cent poorer than the French in 2020, they are now on almost exactly the same footing, a separate study by the European Commission has found. The GDP per capita at purchasing power parity — a measure of income per person accounting for currency differences — is $59,453 in Italy and $59,683 in France.
The figures are all the more striking because the EU as a whole is falling ever further behind the US in terms of economic clout, analysts say. They have provoked an outpouring of despair from commentators, particularly those on the right.