Old EU economies losing ground

The old economies of western Europe are continuing to lose ground to Eastern Europe and traditional highflyers like the US and Norway, the Paris-based economic organisation OECD has said, with Italy even ending up below the organisation's average.

The OECD report, released on Wednesday (21 November), measured GDP per capita - in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) - and household consumption for the year 2005 for 55 economies, including the EU member states, Japan and the United Stat...