The Analysis of the Real Convergence of the Countries from Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

This thesis treats extremely present aspects regarding the evolutions of the emerging economies within the new member states of the European Union insisting on the analysis of the convergence process from a real perspective. Beside the achievement of a monetary union, one of the fundamental objectives of the European Union is represented by the reducing of the disparities regarding the level of development among the member states. One of the ways of appreciating the reduction of the disparities between the economies involve a reduction of the gap as far as the GDP level/inhabitant is concerned or in other words, a real convergence. A series of statistic data are analysed in order to point out the extent to which the central ad East-European states have managed to reduce the gap in report to the developed member states of the EMU, using indicators for the appreciation of the real convergence: the GDP per inhabitant, the monthly average salary, the poverty rate, the contribution of the main sectors of the economy in the formation of the GDP and the unemployment rate. From the analysis of the statistic data one can observe that the highest degree of real convergence is held by Slovenia, which distanced a lot from the other EEC states, followed by the Czech Republic. Regarding from the point of view of the evolution of the EEC countries during the entire analysed period, based on the dynamics of the indicators and of the speed of catching up the gaps we can also notice the performance of the Baltic countries. Unfortunately, Romania and Bulgaria are way behind the other EEC countries.

Keywords

• real convergence
• the evolution of the GDP per inhabitant
• the poverty rate