Bishop & Associates has just released a new six-chapter research report analyzing the European Connector Market. This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the European connector market detailing connector consumption by country, with details by end-use equipment sector, and connector product category. Sales are provided for the years 2003, 2004, and 2009. These 18 countries make up the bulk of the European Connector Market. European Union members Greece, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia are not included in our statistics. The 2000 and 2001 recession had a significant downward impact on the connector's industry's Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR). The five-year (1999/2004) CAGR is only +2.5%, compared to the ten-year (1994/2004) CAGR of +5.0%. The connector industry had previously recorded a historical CAGR of +7.0%. The European market represents almost 26% of the world connector market. This share has hardly changed the last 10 years. This can be explained by the fact that in the past 10 years, the European CAGR has been +5.5%, almost equal to the world wide CAGR of +5.6%. The 2000 and 2001 recession also had a significant downward impact on the European connector industry CAGR. The five-year CAGR (1999-2004) was only +2.7%, only slightly above the industry's average. Partly due to exchange rate effects, the European connector market recorded excellent growth in 2003 and 2004. In 2004, the European connector market recorded its second highest growth rate in the past 20 years. Only 1995 achieved higher growth rate (+24.4%). The four largest economies, which dominating Europe, are Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy. Except for the British economy, the other three economies have not performed well in recent years, slowing economic growth in the entire region. In the 1900s, Ireland has achieved the fastest grow in Western Europe, still continues good growth today. This has resulted in Ireland becoming the fifth largest connector market in Europe, behind Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy. Central and Eastern European countries are now appearing on the horizon and will become more important connector markets in the future. | 
