Economic growth and structural change in Central, East and South-East Europe, 1918–1939

Abstract

This chapter describes the national accounts available for the 12 Central, East and South-East Europe (CESEE) countries. It analyses gross domestic product (GDP), population and GDP per capita developments in the interwar period, partly based on summary statistics and partly on the concept of convergence. The chapter argues that convergence with Western Europe happened, albeit at different speeds in the various countries. The 1920s are portrayed as an earnest and well-intentioned attempt by policy-makers to return to the benign economic environment of the pre-war era, and complement it with supportive international structures such as the League of Nations. The New Economic Policy provided the country with the opportunity to return to where it had stood in 1913; most of the growth came from the exploitation of unused capacity in industry rather than the build-up of new industries. Before World War I, the country stood between Hungary and Bulgaria on many economic indicators.