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Stabilisation, Adjustment and Growth Prospects in Transitional Economies

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Turkey and Central and Eastern European Countries in Transition

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Abstract

It is now over a decade since the transition from planned to market economy and from single-party to democratic rule began in Eastern Europe and slightly less in the former Soviet Union. It is widely agreed that this political and economic transition, affecting about one fourth of the world’s population, has been a unique and historic experience.2 In Eastern Europe the political regimes changed in a very short time, ending one-party socialism. Further east, the collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in fourteen newly independent states. Output declines were worse than expected and some countries had lost more than half of their GDP by 1995. During the course of the transition inflation has reached thousands of per cent, especially in the former Soviet countries, sharply lowering wages and hence living standards.

The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in this chapter are entirely the author’s. They do not necessarily represent those of the World Bank, its executive directors or the countries they represent. However, the author, editor and publishers are grateful to the World Bank for permission to reproduce copyright material from Policy Research Working Papers.

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Authors
  1. Cevdet Denizer
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for International Economics, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey

    S. Togan (Professor of Economics, Director) (Professor of Economics, Director)

  2. Lancaster University, England

    V. N. Balasubramanyam (Professor of Development Economics) (Professor of Development Economics)

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© 2001 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

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Denizer, C. (2001). Stabilisation, Adjustment and Growth Prospects in Transitional Economies. In: Togan, S., Balasubramanyam, V.N. (eds) Turkey and Central and Eastern European Countries in Transition. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-333-97800-9_7

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