After the EU accession of the Visegrad countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) in 2004 one of the most remarkable developments was a sudden upturn in mutual trade of this region’s countries. In 2007 the value of aggregate intra-Visegrad trade was two and a half times higher than in 2003. The rate of growth in these countries’ trade with the ‘old’ EU member states was only half as much as that. As part of a research project in search of explanation for the upturn of mutual trade, this paper addresses the questions how the structure of mutual trade of the Visegrad countries ...more

Labour costs, tax burden and competitiveness in Austria compared with selected CEEs Summary The study analyses in an international comparison the key characteristics and recent developments of labour costs, taxation and productivity in Austria and selected CEEs (Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia). The CEEs still enjoy sizeable cost advantages, yet the fast growth of their unit labour costs implies gradually deteriorating competitiveness. A comparison of the real purchasing power of net wages reveals a lower income disparity betwee...more

The collapse of communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe marked a historical event for the countries on both sides of the iron curtain. Using the recently released EU KLEMS database on detailed sectoral growth and employment measures, we analyse the productivity performance in the period after 1995 for five transition economies, i.e. the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia, and compare their performance with a group of European core economies and partly Austria as a neighbouring small open economy. Our analysis reveals a strong catching-up process with the ...more

This report analyses the link between the industrial allocation of FDI and economic development, using a newly constructed data set on industrial FDI stocks for six individual manufacturing industries (food, textiles/wood, petroleum/chemicals/rubber/plastics, metals/mechanical products, electrical machinery, transport equipment). We give a comprehensive overview of the economic structure in a range of countries, including OECD members, the new EU member states and East Asian countries. The time period analysed ranges from 1987 to 2000, with differing coverage for the individual countries. The ...more

Set of sectoral tables in Excel on CD-ROM; UPDATE July 2004 (for the period 1989-2003)...more

Macedonia has enjoyed price stability, but not growth during transition. As a consequence, it has a very high unemployment rate. Thus, prudent demand management has not led to a positive supply response. The macroeconomic policy mix chosen in 1994 and followed since then was adequate for stability but not for growth. Macedonia opted for a very strict fixed peg to the German mark and then to the euro. It devalued its currency, the denar, only once, in 1997. It supported the exchange rate with a restrictive monetary policy that kept interest rates high. Both proved to put up obstacles to interna...more

Unit labour costs (ULCs) are one of the key economic variables considered in the context of globalization, competitiveness and production-location decisions. With the EU accession of eight Central and East European countries and their (almost) full inclusion in the European Single Market, the issues related to the labour cost competitiveness of these countries has become even more important. The present paper outlines the key methodological and practical problems associated with the evaluation of ULCs with a particular focus on the new EU member states (NMS). It provides also new and up-to-dat...more

Overall economic growth in China is expected to reach 8.5% in 2003, the highest rate since the Asian economic crisis in 1997/98. However, the expansion was harshly interrupted in the second quarter of the year by the outbreak of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome): economic activity in certain sectors and regions was paralysed as a consequence of panic reactions on the one hand and far-reaching preventive measures, including travel-bans, quarantine, etc. on the other. The GDP growth rate declined to just 6.7% in the second quarter, after 9.9% growth in the first quarter of 2003. But growt...more