20:34 17 September 2019
Poland and Hungary immune to Germany’s problems
The impending recession in the German economy will reveal the actual level of CEE countries’ dependence on it, Leonid Bershidsky writes in a column for Bloomberg. Some economists define the countries of the CEE region as economic colonies of Germany. Bershidsky, however, believes that the policies of the “nationalist” governments in Poland and Hungary have so far contributed to increasing the resistance of these two economies to the economic problems in Germany.
According to the columnist, this is due to such factors as low unemployment that results in wage increases and, consequently, in growing internal demand. The latter is growing the fastest in Poland, Romania, and Hungary – all the three countries feature the most expansive fiscal policy in the region. What is more, both Poland and Hungary are gradually reducing Germany’s share of their exports. In the years 2000-2018, Germany’s share in total exports from Poland and Hungary decreased by 10 and 7 percentage points respectively.
According to the Bloomberg columnist, the economic prescriptions of populist governments are working, despite the fact that the same governments are also conducting quite negative actions in their countries, which interfere with fundamental freedoms, fueling corruption and weakening the judiciary system.
(300gospodarka)
