Playing with charts

By Tatjana Wolff and Boris Planer

A couple of weeks ago when working on a short article on retailing in the Euro area, we were sitting in front of that very simple data set of real GDP growth rates from 2005 - 2015, looking at how the troubled economies were doing of the countries that have recently shot to fame as the PIIGS states (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain).

A look at the figures made it clear that Spain will not return to pre-crisis output levels until 2013, although this still looks good when looking at Portugal, which may not reach that point until 2015. Meanwhile, Italy and Ireland might follow in 2016, while Greece now looks unlikely to return to pre-crisis output before 2018, which means the country is in the process of losing an entire decade of economic development - from today’s forecast perspective.

Of course, there were different options to put these data into a chart. Here are some that we considered, along with short comments on their pros and cons. As always, you can click on the thumbnail to see larger versions of the charts.

The classic – a simple line chart showing annual growth rates for each country; the coloured lines make it easy to follow developments in each single market. As all lines are back in positive territory from 2013, the crisis sees pretty much sorted out, doesn‘t it? But look at the next chart…

…the classic turned index – with the crisis starting in 2007, all annual data points are measured against that base year. This is the chart that reveals how bad the crisis really is, as three out of five countries fail to even return to pre-crisis level by 2015. Looks much more nasty than the first chart.

Another classic used differently – the bar charts (normally used for market totals than growth rates) make it difficult to follow an individual country, but show very clearly where the PIIGS are heading as a group.

Candy sticks – very difficult to eat, err, read, but shows that only before 2008 and after 2012 all PIIGS economies were in positive territory. However, the hole in between is five years wide. And it clearly highlights those who kept behaving like drops in bitter times.

Santa‘s sleigh runway (with potholes big and small…) – nice to look at, and that‘s about it.

Academic, precise, sober – this chart brutally exposes the fact that 99% of a line chart are fiction. Because between annual data points there is an infinite number of potential connection lines. It shows what is known and nothing else.

Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho – the ultimate version sums it all up - the Christmas tree ball chart J!

All the best for today and all of 2012!