The Development of Internal Macroeconomic Imbalances in European Countries in the Process of Integration

Abstract

The economic crisis has revealed the existence of significant and long persisting external and internal macroeconomic imbalances in European countries. The aim of the article is to evaluate the development of internal macroeconomic imbalances in 28 European countries in the course of the years 2004-2013, and to show whether this development is depend on the acquired degree of economic integration (common market, monetary union). Internal macroeconomic imbalances were defined on the basis of Macroeconomic Imbalances Procedures (MIP) Scoreboard. On the basis of the evaluation of the individual indicators development, it is possible to say that from the year 2008 the overall development of internal macroeconomic imbalances was disproportional and at the same time the countries of Eurozone showed higher proportion of countries with imbalances in all the monitored indicators. A significant difference was detected in the indicators of loan /credit flow in the private sector, the debt of the private sector and the indicators of public debt. The conclusions arrived at also do not support the Hypothesis of Integration Process Endogeneity.