A diverse group of European countries--Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Malta and Portugal--reported their first quarter GDPs today. Cyprus, the second smallest country in terms of population in the Euro Area, was one of those rare countries to report an increase in GDP of 1.2% in the first quarter of 2009 over the first quarter of 2008. Malta, the smallest country in the Euro Area, in terms of population, reported a year to year decline of 3.4%. Estonia, another relatively small country, in terms of population, reported a year to year decline of 15.1% in the first quarter of this year after a 9.7% year to year decline in the fourth quarter. Estonia is the last of the Baltic's to report its first quarter GDP. Lithuania earlier reported a 13.6% year over year decline and Latvia, one of 18%. The first chart shows the year to year changes in GDP for Cyprus, Malta and Estonia.

Among the mid sized countries--population wise-- reporting today, the Czech Republic reported a first quarter year to year declines in GDP of 3.4% after a 0.6% decline in the fourth quarter of last year. Portugal's year to year decline in the first quarter of 3.7% followed a 2.0% decline in the fourth quarter of last year. Finland's year to year decline at 7.5% was more than twice those of the Czech Republic and Portugal. The second chart shows the year to year changes in GDP for the Czech Republic, Finland and Portugal.