Changes in Levels of Economic Development among the States Formed in the Area of Former Yugoslavia

After a long period, during the Yugoslav epoch, in which there were no changes in the levels of economic development of the constitutive republics, major changes occurred following the break-up of Yugoslavia. The western republics - today independent Slovenia and Croatia - rapidly advanced and notably diverged from the former eastern republics. The range of differences in development levels became surprisingly large in the area of the former shared state. At the same time, economic cooperation between countries in the ex-Yugoslav area decreased. Most recently there has been an increase in such cooperation, yet its extent is still much lower than before the break-up of Yugoslavia. The present differences in the levels of development between the western and the eastern states (independent countries) will presumably decrease in the future - however, for some time to come, for at least one or two decades, these differences will remain greater than they were during the period before 1990, i.e. when the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia still existed.