Purchasing Power Parity among developing countries and their trade-partners. Evidence from selected CEECs and Implications for their membership of EU.

The purpose of the paper is twofold. Firstly, we test the validity of the PPP hypothesis for selected CEEC (Czech Republic; Hungary; Poland and Slovak Republic). Secondly, we attempt to define those countries’ trade linkages between Euro Area; US and the rest of the world. By applying both univariate unit root and a multivariate cointegration test, we find stronger evidence of PPP from the latter test. Moreover, any failure to accept PPP cannot be attributed to structural breaks, apart from one case (between Czech Republic and EU). In overall, there is evidence of strong-form PPP in 6 out of the 8 cases, while for the rest two, weak-form PPP is accepted. Thus, we confirm PPP as a long run equilibrium baseline for these exchange rates per EURO. Furthermore, the fact that PPP holds between these countries and Euro Area indicates absence of trade frictions and other barriers. The implied well-developed trade relations are consistent with those countries’ entry into EMU.