SIMILARITIES AMONG CEE COUNTRIES REGARDING FINANCIAL STABILITY INDICATORS

Abstract

The globalization trend increases the financial linkages, increasing in this way the contagion effects. This issue become even more sensitive for post-communist European countries as their economies have created relatively new financial systems being currently of little experience, moreover when they become part of EU. Therefore, in this study we try to find similarities among CEE countries regarding financial stability indicators. We apply cluster analysis techniques for the period 2007-2011 in order to see also the trend of homogeneity of these countries. Among the CEE countries appear Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovak Republic as more integrated. Less integrated in these countries are Balkan countries, which tended to be in a long distance from the EMU cluster. Similarities are also required within SEE countries to clarify their position. This inclusion clarified the position of Albania, which seemed to have much more similarities with EMU group. Furthermore, seems even more obvious that Serbia is again far away from other countries. There is an increasing tendency of homogeneity of these countries in the last three years, more obvious in the last year of the period under the study.