Economic situation in The Visegrad Group countries – comparative analysis

Abstract

The Visegrad Group was founded in 1991 as an informal association of three countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Its main goal was to develop cooperation among them, mainly concerning economic issues and accession to the European Union and NATO. Since the division of Czechoslovakia (January 1993) the group has included Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The purpose of this article is to present and compare the economic situation of Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia in the years 2001–2012. The article consists of an introduction and three parts entitled: Materials and Research Methodology, Research Results, and Summary and Conclusions. The main part (Research Results) analyses the most important macroeconomic indicators: GDP per capita, economic growth rate, inflation rates, changes in employment, unemployment rate, public debt ratio, current account balance and exchange rate.