| Fixed exchange rate regimes contributed to the East European financial crisis (2009-12-21)
Chairman of CASE Advisory Board, Anders Aslund participated in The Return of History: From Consensus to Crisis CASE International Conference as a panelist in the fourth session. Findings presented at the event have now been published as part of the CASE Network Studies and Analyses Publication No. 395. In The East European Financial Crisis, Aslund focuses on the global financial distress of 2008/9 in thirteen countries, the ten new EU members and the three countries of former Soviet Union. He claims that the East European countries with fixed exchange rates are the hardest-hit by the crisis. Currency boards pegged to the to the Euro in the Baltics, Bulgaria and Bosnia, and the dollar peg in Ukraine, led to large capital inflows, capital account deficits and inflation that consequently contributed to the adverse impact of the crisis and deep economic recession. On the contrary, Poland and the Czech Republic, with floating exchange rates, and Slovenia and Slovakia, which adopted euro, were significantly less-hit in the region. For long run economic stability, Aslund advocates easing ERM II conditions and facilitating euro adoption in the region. 
The East European Financial Crisis, has been published as CASE Netowork Studies and Analyses Paper No. 395 [full text report] |