New issue of the EU Candidate and Pre-Accession Countries Economic Quarterly

The European Commission has published the latest EU Candidate and Pre-Accession Countries Economic Quarterly, for the second quarter of 2014.

Major figures and analyses published in the Quarterly show that economic growth had significantly strengthened in all economies except Albania in 2013. Only in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia did the pace of growth further accelerate while Turkey maintained a solid performance. At the other end of the spectrum, growth decelerated sharply compared to the fourth quarter 2013 in Serbia and Iceland, translating into quasi-stagnation in year on year terms.

Three Western Balkan countries – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia – are now experiencing deflation according to the Quarterly. The current account deficit deteriorated in the first quarter in four Western Balkan economies and Iceland’s surplus turned into deficit. An improvement was only observed in Turkey where the deficit started declining and in Serbia and Montenegro where it further narrowed.

Fiscal positions also remain somewhat uneven. Budget performance was nevertheless on track in the first five months of 2014 in most of the countries, with the deficit even turning to surplus in Iceland and Bosnia and Herzegovina

Read the Economic Quarterly in full here.

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