This article discusses the issue of excessive credit growth, which is generally considered as an early indicator of financial and macroeconomic instability. It focuses methods that should be used in order to evaluate if the level of credit growth is excessively enough in order to start applying “countercyclical capital buffer”, a macro prudential tool proposed in the new regulatory framework of Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. Analysis focused in Central and Eastern European countries experiences with credit growth approach before the global financial crisis, show that the HP filter calculation proposed by the Basel Committee is not a suitable indicator of excessive credit growth for converging countries. A broader set of indicators and methods based in economic fundamentals of each country should be employ to determine a country’s position in the credit cycle.

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Purpose This paper aims to focus on analyzing the level of corruption of small- and medium-sized enterprises and their economic performance impact in Western Balkan countries. This study uses survey data from Enterprise Surveys (ES) from 2019, a shared project of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank and the World Bank Group. The selected countries are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia. The questions included in the data set contribute to understanding what firms experience in the private sector. Collected data are based on firms’ experiences and enterprises’ perceptions of the environment in which they operate. Design/methodology/approach This paper measures enterprise performance in terms of sales, employees and fixed assets growth. The vector of independent variables comprises enterprise characteristics such as enterprise age, size, ownership structure, legal status, access to formal banking services, gender ownership and other composed variables. Moreover, to capture the level of perceived corruption by firms, we will focus on the following ES questions: “Is it common to have to pay some irregular additional payment or gifts to get things done with regard to customs, taxes, licenses, regulations, services,” and the “corruption payment” is defined in the form of a dummy equal to one if the enterprise replies “frequently,” “usually” or “always.” Findings Preliminary empirical research results shed light on the level and effects of corruption on enterprises’ performance. However, the magnitude and statistical significance are different among the countries included in the sample. Originality/value Instead of firm-level characteristics, research on corruption frequently focuses on effects dependent on national and institutional characteristics. To better identify the kinds of businesses that are most at risk of corruption, we have selected to focus on differences among firm characteristics in this research. Understanding factors at the firm level is preferred from a policy perspective because these findings assist policymakers to make recommendations.

Regional economic integration is regarded as a priority task for western Balkans countries in order to prepare them for integration into the European Union. Given the under-performance between these countries in terms of trade, we propose the creation of a complementary supranational currency that would serve the common market of the western Balkans and also intensify trade exchanges between them. We support the idea that structural reforms and the technical provisions proposed in this adopted Keynes Plan may, at least in principle, provide the necessary solutions to avoid imbalances between the countries; serve as an incentive to intensify trade exchanges; and curb inflationary and deflationary pressures in the joint western Balkans market. Our research makes a solid contribution to the debate on international monetary systems. We believe that a complementary currency would make regional integration more effective within the western Balkans but, furthermore, would also call into question the international monetary system were it to be as effective in practice as we think it would be.

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