The Reflection of the Current Crisis on the Economic Growth in the European Union New Member States

The paper presents an analysis of the economic growth evolution in the European Union new member states, being part of a more comprehensive research regarding the euro adoption challenges, taking as benchmark Slovakia and Slovenia, countries that already entered the euro zone. The research underlines the fact that, starting with the mid-September 2008, the macroeconomic landscape of the analyzed countries changed radically, registering a decrease of the economic activities determined both by a diminished export activity and by a reduced internal demand, with effects on the firms’ profitability and on the deterioration of the labour market situation. The results show that the severity of the financial global crisis effects was different in the analyzed countries, as a response to various “paths” of economic development, with less or more important vulnerabilities, with differences in the extent to which the economies are based on external demand and on credit activity induced from abroad. The countries that are suffering the deepest recessions are those that registered not only a decline of exports, but also a collapse of the internal demand, as a result of stopping the credit activities that were a support for the internal demand.