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Landesmann, Michael A. --- "South-East Europe: signs of catching up" [2005] ELECD 376; in Liebscher, Klaus; Christl, Josef; Mooslechner, Peter; Ritzberger-Grünwald, Doris (eds), "European Economic Integration and South-East Europe" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005)

Book Title: European Economic Integration and South-East Europe

Editor(s): Liebscher, Klaus; Christl, Josef; Mooslechner, Peter; Ritzberger-Grünwald, Doris

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845425173

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: South-East Europe: signs of catching up

Author(s): Landesmann, Michael A.

Number of pages: 9

Extract:

1. South-East Europe: signs
of catching up
Michael A. Landesmann

INTRODUCTION

The 1990s was a decade in which South-East Europe (SEE)1 fell dramati-
cally behind the more advanced transition economies of Central and
Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia ­ we
shall call them the CEE-5). The cause was, of course, the disintegration of
former Yugoslavia, which included a succession of wars, regional conflicts
and economic and political disintegration. Even the countries of the region
which were not directly involved in these conflicts, such as Bulgaria and
Romania, suffered significantly in terms of interrupted trade routes and the
disintegration and collapse of a neighbouring economic region.
Since 2000 things have improved. The growth of GDP in SEE over the
most recent period (2000­2004) has even been higher than in the CEE-5;
and in quite a few of the countries the most recent growth rates have been
in the region of 5­7 per cent (Table 1.1). There has even been some signifi-
cant improvement in industrial production in SEE with the exception of
Macedonia and Serbia over that period (see Table 1.2). Hence a catching-
up process has started, and in all the contributions to this book on this
issue, a positive tone as to the prospects of the SEE region has been
adopted. Table 1.1 provides the information regarding GDP levels in the
years 2000 and 2004 in relation to 1990 ( 100). It shows that with the
exception of ...