Financial Crisis in Central and Eastern Europe – Development Differentiation in the Regions

Crises existed not only in the last decades. In each country fluctuations such as upswings or downturns can be observed in the economy. The serious economic crisis can take place when the extending long-lasting decline continues. In the situation when the crisis ap­pears in the economy it is significant to have a stable financial system. The last financial crisis showed weakness of the contemporary model of social-economic development functioning in the global world, also in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The paper presents the situa­tion of Central and Eastern Europe during the financial crisis. The goal is to analyze the most important kinds of macroeconomic indicators of CEE countries, present development differ­entiation in the regions at NUTS2 level and systematize causes of the crisis and anti-crisis activities in Central and Eastern Europe. In this paper theoretical aspects of the financial crisis and financial crises’ types are shown as a basis for further analysis. The theoretical study, the observation method and the statistical data analysis were used to present the global financial crisis influence on the CEE economy. Finally, the method of coefficient of variation was im­plemented to confirm regional development differentiation in Central and Eastern Europe re­gions and to answer the question if the CEE regions can still narrow the development gap between them and other regions of the European Union.