MACROECONOMIC PERFORMANCE, TRADE AND COMPETITIVENESS OF SOUTH-EAST EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

The purpose of this paper is to analyze macroeconomic performance of the selected South-east European (SEE) countries reflected by GDP growth, inflation, unemployment and overall economic competitiveness and especially to asses the impact of global crisis on domestic economies. As a key aspect of overall competitiveness, changes in the trade patterns of selected South-east European countries are also analyzed. The period from 2000 to 2008 can be characterized as successful for South-east European countries due to the narrowing development gap in comparison to EU countries, but
the recent global economic crisis had a strong negative impact on this region. However, due to domestic absorption growth and export of services, Albanian economy was growing even in 2009, a period when most European countries recorded significant drops in economic activity. On the other hand, the highest negative growth rates were recorded in Croatia and Montenegro. In all countries the global economic crisis resulted in decreasing comparative advantages and export competitiveness in most export products. Most of the observed countries have complementary export structures. This kind of situation offers the possibilities of strengthening the mutual economic cooperation and joint efforts on the international markets especially in the circumstances of the global economic crisis