1/2023 Karsten Staehr. Economic Growth, Current Account Dynamics and Growth Regimes in the Baltic States
Working Papers of Eesti Pank 1/2023
This paper considers the growth performance of the Baltic states from the mid-1990s to 2021. Economic growth was fast before the global financial crisis, but slowed markedly after the crisis. Panel data estimations using seemingly unrelated regressions suggest that the dynamics of the current account balance are important for short and medium-term growth in the Baltic states, but that there is a break signifying a change of growth regime around the time of the global financial crisis. Before the crisis, rapid growth was supported by domestic demand that was made possible by large current account deficits. After the crisis, economic growth was supported by external demand reflected in an improvement of the current account. The shift in the economic growth regime after the global financial crisis has brought lower but also more sustainable growth.
JEL Codes: F32, F34, O40
Keywords: economic growth, economic convergence, current account balance, global financial crisis
The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the European Commission, Eesti Pank or the Eurosystem.
