The financial systems inherited by post-communist countries are damaging their economic development and make impossible macroeconomic policies aimed both at growth and economic stabilization. This incompatibility is illustrated by recent Polish experiences under both the last communist and the...

The measures taken so far to move towards currency convertibility and combat inflation in Russia and the other CIS countries are based largely on a three-stage programme formulated by the IMF. The following article presents alternatives and compares them with the IMF concept from the point of...

Private investment has a key role to play in the "economic take-off" in Eastern Germany. Can the region attract sufficient investment? What factors stand in the way of a rapid improvement in the quality of the new Länder as a location?

Reforms have to be credible in order to fully reveal the intended positive effects. This important lesson for economies in transition is illustrated by recent experiences in developing countries. The following article discusses several possible ways of enhancing credibility.

In the economic literature the reasons for recession during the transformation of a planned into a market economy are still debated. The following article sets the arguments in this debate against an interpretation of the stylised facts of the transformation process in Central Eastern Europe...

Following the collapse of the CMEA, the foreign trade of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe declined drastically with dire consequences for output, incomes and employment in these countries. What options do the former CMEA members have for revitalizing their foreign trade? What...

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has a significant role to play not only in the process of accelerating privatization, but in the development and strengthening of the emerging market economies of Central Eastern Europe (CEE). The inflow of FDI into Poland up to 1994 was marginal as compared to...

The first step towards the establishment of a banking sector geared to the market economy, the introduction of a two-tier banking system, has long since been taken by the countries of East Central Europe. A large number of shortcomings are still to be found in their banking systems, however, and...

Beyond the existing forms of East-West cooperation in Europe such as economic assistance, loans, joint ventures and association agreements, both sides are looking for suitable ways of establishing more institutionalized relations. Already existing institutions, membership of which could be...