GDP and manufacturing output growth in Western European countries 1950-1970
Japan was the only individual, major economic power to experience faster growth during this time. In Western Europe, the fastest growth rates were across the southern states*, and in the founding countries of the European Coal and Steel Community (Benelux, France, Italy, and West Germany). Not only was West Germany the largest economy in post-WWII Western Europe, but it also had the highest growth rate of economic output, at an average of 6.2 percent each year.
During the "Golden Age of Capitalism", between 1950 and 1969, economic growth and output grew across virtually all countries in Europe. Growth in Western Europe was the fastest of any region in the world;