The fastest growing economy in Europe in 2023 was Montenegro. The small Balkan country's gross domestic product grew at 4.5 percent in 2023, beating out Turkey which had a growth rate of four percent and Malta which had a rate of 3.8 percent in the same year. Estonia was the country with the largest negative growth in 2023, as the Baltic country's economy shrank by 2.3 percent compared with 2022, largely as a result of the country's exposure to the economic effects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent economic sanctions placed on Russia. Germany, Europe's largest economy, also experience slightly negative growth, at minus 0.5 percent. Overall, the European economy avoided recession in 2023, with a growth rate of one percent, while the EU (which contains 27 European countries) and the Eurozone (which contains 20) grew by 0.7 percent each. Eastern Europe reported markedly higher GDP growth than Western Europe in 2023, at 1.6 percent.
