Great Graphic: G7 Quarterly GDP

This Great Graphic comes from the UK's Office of National Statistics (ONS).  It shows the quarterly performance of GDP since the start of 2008 for the G7 countries.  

Canada has been the strongest of the majors.  The downturn was more shallow and the expansion has been among the strongest, even if not stellar.  The US economic performance has almost matched Canada's performance.  The two North American economies stand out. 

The next tier is the UK and Germany.  The downturn in Germany was deeper than the UK's, but its initial recovery was stronger.  However, since 2013, the UK economy found better traction.  The results being roughly identical.  The French slump was not as deep as Germany's and was nearly the same as the US.  After the initial stimulus faded by 2011 the economy has been largely stagnant.  It has performed marginally better than Japan over the period.

While, the Japanese economy is slightly smaller than it was in 2008, the Italian economy stands out as the worst performer in the G7.  The slump was slightly deeper than the downturn in Germany, but its recovery was short-lived before the next slump hit (2011-2013).  The economy has been broadly stagnant for the last two years.  Italy, like Greece, has seen it per capita GDP return to levels not seen since the advent of the euro.