The process of European Union (EU) integration proceeds from economic to political integration. The economic integration itself proceeds from trade to financial to complete market integration. The sustainability of the process depends on some causal relation existing between economic and...

This wiiw report reviews the economic situation in the new EU member states, in the countries of Southeast Europe, in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine as well as in China. For each country, it provides a forecast relating to GDP growth, inflation, unemployment and current accounts in 2004 and 2005....

Croatia's external debt has been growing steadily since the exchange rate stabilization in 1994. It reached almost 85% of GDP at the end of 2003. The level and the trend raise questions of sustainability and thus of an appropriate policy response. The current trend of debt accumulation is not...

Policy frameworks of the IMF, the World Bank, and the EU are discussed in order to come up with criteria of macroeconomic and financial stability and sustainability for Future Member States of the EU (candidate and potential candidate countries). The key deficiency of the EU policy framework is...

The report gives an overview of the overall trends in output and employment in Croatia, and of the country's fiscal and external sectors. It concentrates in more detail on the manufacturing sector and its competitiveness in comparison with developments in other Central, East and Southeast...

Southeast Europe (SEE) has been lagging in transition and development. For political, security and institutional reasons, it has developed in a non-standard way. However, the prospects for reforms and growth are now better than they have been in a decade, if not longer. There are positive...

Almost a year after the end of the Kosovo conflict, South Eastern Europe remains a volatile, insecure and economically depressed region. Post-conflict reconstruction has not spurred growth, unemployment has risen and security tensions in Kosovo and Montenegro persist. Bosnia and Herzegovina...

Graph of the month Dependence of selected European countries on gas imports from Russia, 2012, in % (p. 1) Some lesser known facts about Ukraine’s foreign trade (by Peter Havlik; pp. 2-5) Opinion corner Russia and Ukraine – three questions, nine answers (by Vasily Astrov, Vladimir Gligorov...

Russian Federation signs of fragile recovery (by P. Havlik; pp. 1-3) Keywords economic forecasts, GDP growth, inflation Countries covered Austria, Russia Topics Macroeconomic Analysis, Forecasts and Policy Ukraine ongoing credit crunch (by V. Astrov; pp. 4-6) Keywords economic forecasts, GDP...

Bulgaria growing economy, widening external deficit (by Anton Mihailov) Countries covered Bulgaria Romania becoming attractive for investors (by Gábor Hunya) Countries covered Romania Croatia worsening external imbalances (by Hermine Vidovic) Countries covered Croatia Macedonia growth returns...