Correcting external imbalances in the European economy

"This paper examines current account developments in different country groups amongst the lower- and medium-income European economies (LMIEs) both prior to the crisis and following it. The Baltic countries, the Western Balkan as well as the Southern EU countries (Greece, Portugal and Spain) sho...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hanzl-Weiß, Doris, Landesmann, Michael A.
Institution:ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
Format: TEXT
Language:English
Published: Vienna 2016
WIIW
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19104975124919221579-Correcting-external-imbalances.htm
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author Hanzl-Weiß, Doris
Landesmann, Michael A.
author_facet Hanzl-Weiß, Doris
Landesmann, Michael A.
collection Library items
description "This paper examines current account developments in different country groups amongst the lower- and medium-income European economies (LMIEs) both prior to the crisis and following it. The Baltic countries, the Western Balkan as well as the Southern EU countries (Greece, Portugal and Spain) showed rather dramatic deteriorations in their current accounts prior to the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008/2009, while in the Central and Eastern European countries current account deficits never exploded. What drove current account developments before the crisis and have external imbalances been sustainably corrected? We investigate whether and to which extent adjustments took place in terms of trade performance, real effective exchange rates and components of unit labour costs. Finally, we look at developments of the tradable and non-tradable sectors of the economy and find that ‘structural’ current account problems are grounded in persistent weaknesses of the tradable sector. As such, policy implications would entail that countries which suffer from longer-term ‘structural’ external imbalances have to strongly focus their policy attention on a recovery of the tradable sector."
format TEXT
geographic Central Europe
Eastern Europe
South East Europe
id 19104975124919221579_a17773a4d073486f928f2701b6125f1c
institution ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
is_hierarchy_id 19104975124919221579_a17773a4d073486f928f2701b6125f1c
is_hierarchy_title Correcting external imbalances in the European economy
language English
physical 43 p.
Digital
publishDate 2016
publisher Vienna
WIIW
spellingShingle Hanzl-Weiß, Doris
Landesmann, Michael A.
economic recession
exchange rate
labour cost
structural adjustment
Correcting external imbalances in the European economy
thumbnail https://www.labourline.org/Image_prev.jpg?Archive=106625792480
title Correcting external imbalances in the European economy
topic economic recession
exchange rate
labour cost
structural adjustment
url https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19104975124919221579-Correcting-external-imbalances.htm