Macroeconomic Developments in the Czech Republic and the EU Accession Process
Abstract
This paper evaluated the macroeconomic performance of the Czech Republic since the start of economic reforms and discusses the implications of its accession to the European Union. In particular, because of the high degree of interdependence between the Czech and Slovak Republics, the implications of EU membership will crucially depend on (i) whether the Czech and Slovak Republics enter simultaneously the union and (ii) whether the Czech-Slovak customs union can be sustained if Slovakia is excluded from the first round of the EU enlargement. The second part of the paper then discusses the patterns of growth in the transition and post-transition periods and forecasts potential growth prospects of the Czech Republic, with or without entry to the European Union.