Next time you go down to Inner London, just check the pavements aren’t made of gold.

According to a report published by Eurostat yesterday, Inner London enjoys higher GDP per capita – and that is measured on a purchasing power parity basis – than any other region in the EU.

In fact, London’s GDP per capita is 303 per cent of the EU average.

In total, 42 regions in the EU enjoy more than 125 per cent of the average GDP per capita across the EU – five in the UK: Inner London; the region covering Berkshire, Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire; Gloucestershire, Wiltshire Bristol/Bath area; Cheshire; and Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.

Across the EU, no less than one-in-four regions enjoyed GDP per capita, which is less than 75 per cent of the average, The fifteen lowest regions in the ranking were all in Bulgaria, Poland and Romania, but France has three regions with GDP per cent of less than 75 per cent of the average, Italy four, and even Germany has one region falling into this category. But here in Blighty there are no regions falling into this section.

The three leading regions in the ranking of regional GDP per inhabitant in 2005 were Inner London, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (264 per cent ) and Bruxelles/Brussels in Belgium (241 per cent. )

Berkshire, Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire were in eighth place.