Economic Transformation in Central Europe: A Progress Report
Since the revolutions of 1989, the Central European countries have made an irreversible commitment to political pluralism and parliamentary democracy, private enterprise, and market economies open to international trade and investment. Macroeconomic stabilization, price liberalization and the development of new private enterprise have been relatively successful, and exports to the West have grown rapidly despite the world recession, but progress in developing the financial and legal institutions needed to operate a market economy and the restructuring of state industries has been slow.
In this volume, the output of a joint project of the Commission of the European Communities and the Centre for Economic Policy Research, leading economists from the former CSFR, Hungary and Poland assess these countries' progress in economic transformation since 1989 and the prospects for their continued growth and integration into the world economy. They also evaluate the economic, social and political implications of the alternative policy proposals currently under discussion in these countries. In an overview chapter, two economists from the Community sum up the analysis of the individual countries, draw lessons from their experience, and set out specific policy guidelines.
This book provides an up-to-date assessment of Central Europe's difficult but ultimately positive and rewarding process of economic transformation, in which the European Community has so great a stake. This should command the attention of both policy-makers and analysts.
