The Development Of Capital Markets And The Reform Of The Banking Systems In Eastern Europe

Covers the different ways in which financial systems have changed and been developed in Central and Eastern Europe during the recent upheavals and collapse of communism. Banking is examined in the protomarket period; for independence in the transitional economies; and in liberalization.

Addresses the challenge Hungary faces in overcoming threatening deficits in its current and fiscal accounts without hampering economic growth. The Hungarian economy is emerging from a severe four-year recession with positive developments on numerous economic fronts, but with major weaknesses remaining because of large current and fiscal account deficits. This book addresses the challenge Hungary faces in overcoming these deficits without hampering economic growth. The report examines the country's macroeconomic performance in the first half of the 1990s and the stabilization package launched in March 1995. It explores the structure of fiscal revenues, pension reform, and enterprise and banking reforms. The study also looks at the impact of structural reforms on future economic growth and at Hungary's bid to integrate with the European Union.

The book examines in depth the progress of reform in the banking sector in Eastern Europe - which is a key element in its transition to the market. Particular emphasis is placed on the problem of bad debts owed by companies to banks, and on criteria and options for overcoming this serious problem. The book also analyses the recent development of capital markets in Eastern Europe, their role in attracting foreign capital flows and the limitations to the development of those markets and suggests how to overcome them. Based on analysis by senior policy-makers and academics from the region , the book focuses on four countries: the former Czechoslovakia (now the Czech and Slovak Republics), Hungary and Poland.

This book charts the process of financial market reform in Central and Eastern Europe. Topics discussed will include the implications of future EU membership, and the strategies pursued by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

The need for financial sector reform in the formerly socialist economies was recognized from the start, but views about how and when to proceed diverged. Too often, complex western models have been prescribed prematurely. Banking reform has progressed further in Russia than elsewhere, which supports the view that market factors should be allowed to do more in the transition than they have.

The first part of this book consists of seven chapters which draw lessons for the transforming economies from the experiences of EC member countries (including, Eastern Germany), the U.S., and South-East Asian 'Pacific Rim' countries. The second part of the book contains a further six chapters which focus on the experiences of Poland in the early phase of its transition with regard to privatisation, the microeconomic impact of monetary policy and banking sector reform, and draws lessons for other transforming economies.

At the beginning of the transition process, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe faced the task of creating a functioning financial system where none had existed before. A decade later, high-level practitioners and well-known experts take stock of banking and monetary policy in the region, centring on: the governance of banks; the spread of financial crisis; and, perspectives for monetary policy and banking sector development.

This book contains 21 papers focusing on a wide range of issues concerning financial sector transition in the countries of Europe and Central Asia (ECA). It places the transition economies in the context of recent and prospective developments in global financial markets. This book also evaluates the experience of the last 10 years and reviews the progress from a command financial system to a market-based one, identifying some of the key characteristics of the financial transition.