Prague has become one of the wealthiest regions in the European Union, surpassing Brussels, Paris, and Berlin. According to Eurostat data, the Czech capital secured the fourth position in terms of GDP per capita among EU regions in 2022. Petr Dufek, the chief economist of Bank Creditas, shared this insight.
Two regions in Ireland and Luxembourg surpassed Prague. However, the Czech capital stands out from the rest of the country, with more than double the national GDP per capita. The city benefits from being the headquarters of large corporations, and its gap from other regions continues to widen. “The GDP per capita here has grown faster over the past nine years than in the rest of the country,” Dufek announced.
Dufek drew attention to a comparison with Germany’s capital. “Berlin’s GDP per capita in purchasing power parity is at sixty percent of Prague’s, while Germany as a whole is thirty percent above the Czech Republic,” he stated.
According to Dufek, an interesting comparison is with the Bratislava region, which was ahead of Prague in 2013. However, according to the latest data, Bratislava is at 71 percent of Prague’s level, with its GDP per capita having grown by a mere two percent over the past nine years. Prague, during the same period, grew by 48 percent.
This aligns with the overall trend of the Czech Republic moving away from Slovakia. “While in 2012 Slovakia was at 92 percent of the Czech level, in 2022 it was not even 80 percent,” he described. He added that GDP per capita is an exciting figure indicating economic levels. Still, it does not fully reflect the standard of living in the region, such as whether an increase in GDP contributes to the standard of living or company profitability. However, it does show significant regional differences in each country and suggests the direction of each country’s economic policy.