FIGURE 42-4 Crisis and Recovery in the United States and the European Union

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, aggregate output in the European Union and in the United States fell dramatically. Real GDP, shown here as an index with each economy’s peak pre-crisis quarter set to 100, declined by more than 5%. As you can see, by 2013, real GDP in the United States had recovered beyond pre-crisis levels, and aggregate output in the European Union had still not reached its pre-crisis peak.
Sources: Bureau of Economic Analysis; Eurostat.