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In 1972 the UK still hadn't recovered economically from WWII, and the other members of the EU at the time were France, West Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. With the possible exception of Italy, all those are (per capita) economic powerhouses.

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At the point of the UK joining Italy had a higher GDP per capita than the UK.

Thanks, I'm never sure about when Italy seemed to have declined (relative to some of the more wealthy neighbors). Or maybe tourism and partially remembered facts aren't a reliable source and their economy is still doing well.

Italy's GDP stopped growing when they joined the Euro.

That makes sense. The Euro was kind of a disaster for all the southern European countries, as far as I can tell.

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