摘要:The objective of this study is to help assess the possible vulnerabilities in five Central European countries--the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia (CE5) as they integrate into the world economy and proceed towards European Union accession, in light of the recent financial crisis which started in East Asia (EA5). A comparative analysis with two regional groups of countries is pursued, making use of the recent East Asian experience as well as the experience of the Southern Mediterranean Countries (SM3) during the period of their accession to the European Community. Section 1 discusses the context and presents a short description of the CE5 countries' experience in attracting capital flows, comparing it with the experiences of the SM3 and EA5. Section 2 analyses the manifestations of vulnerability to financial crises and sustainability of foreign capital flows to the CE5. The analysis draws on experiences and lessons from the recent crisis in East Asia, and from the Southern Mediterranean countries during the period of their accession. Section 3 interprets the results of the previous section and draws implications, and discusses the possible impact of the East Asia crisis and the introduction of the Euro. Section 4 discusses EU accession of the CE5 and lessons from the Southern Mediterranean countries' accession to the EC in the 1980s. Concluding remarks and recommendations are given in Section 5.
