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    The economy of Belgium is very varied and cannot be understood without taking the regional differences into account. Indeed, Flemish and Walloon economies differ in many respects, and cities like Brussels, Antwerp, Liège, Bruges, Charleroi or Ghent also exhibit significant differences.  The economy on those regions differ in productivity level, unemployment rate, GDP per capital. The peak of gross domestic product growth was reached in 1989, when it was four percent, but there were many recessions in this country since World War II, including the recessions in 1973, 1979, 1992. Belgium is heavily supported by the foreign investments. The US firms hold about 11 percent of labour force. 

    The GDP growth for the last three years have not varied much, it was an average of 0,4 percent growth per quarter. The lower gross domestic product growth can be explained by taking into the count world financial crisis, that first hit the US. Since Belgium has many US capital, the production of those companies from US decreased, by decreasing the overall GDP. 

    The unemployment rate has remained almost unchanged since March 2007, it is an average of 6,5% in whole Belgium. But the situation is quite different id different regions. The unemployment in Walloon is as high as 17,6%, in  Flemish it is 9,3% and in Brussels it reaches a very high number – 22%. The unemployment rate in Brussels is in such high number, because the number of immigrants in this city is more than 25% and their average education level is far below of Belgians. 

    An average of worked hours per year for one person is varying from 1554 in 2000 to 1566 in 2007. It makes an average of 6,2 of hours worked per day.