CYCLICAL FLUCTUATIONS IN THE ECONOMIES OF V4 COUNTRIES

Abstract

The Visegrad Four (V4) countries, which include Slovak Republic, Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, are trying to catch up with the economic development and living standards of their more developed neighbours. The brake on this are economic recessions that regularly occur within market economies. The objective of this article is to assess the economic development in the V4 countries, in particular on the basis of development in the main macroeconomic indicator, which is GDP. All these countries went through two recessions in the 2008-2020 period. The first was the recession caused by the spillover of the global financial and economic crisis from the USA to Europe and thus to the V4 countries. During this crisis, the largest decrease was recorded in Hungary and in Slovak Republic. The second, and even stronger, economic crisis affecting the entire world economy and hence the V4 countries too is the current crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the measures taken to prevent its further spread. The highest decrease in GDP is projected in Slovak Republic (at -10.3%) and the lowest in Poland (at -4.3%).