The Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on the Indebtedness of the Southern European Countries

The aim is to research the effects of the global economic crisis on the countries of the Southeast Europe, with a special emphasis on the level and sustainability of foreign debt. The level of foreign indebtedness has resulted from structural problems in the SEE’s i.e. internal and external imbalances. They have been faced with: increase in domestic spending (personal and public), higher growth of import than export, uncompetitiveness of domestic production and export, unfavorable production structure that has resulted in a weak recovery after crisis. In comparison with PI(I)GS the research shows that SEE countries are less indebted and they also have a smaller share of public debt in their GDP’s. Econometric analysis indicates the importance of balance of payment disequilibria as determination of foreign debt. Current account deficit, FDI inflows and occurrence of crisis have positive influence on foreign debt, while budget deficit does not have significant impact.