Economy

This week about Big Berta, Stiglitz’ duel with bad speculators, why Greece needs planning commissioners and about open hunting season for bad news messengers in the European Parliament. The second round of three-year tender loans of the European Central Bank (according to ECB President Mario Draghi so-called “Big Bertha”) flooded the system with 529.5 bln […]

About good news from Iceland, the next act of Greek drama, Spanish ghost city, Presidential poetry and tough love in Europe. We have good news for you. Iceland is not junk anymore. Iceland is a country whose credit rating, unlike in the rest of Europe, started to rise. Why is it important? Iceland has done what […]

INESS, Bratislava 7.3.2012 We added to our The State Waste database the whole proceeded year 2011. Database now consists of 824 documented cases of waste, clientelism and lawsuits brought up by the printed media since the year 2007. The total sum of revealed inefficient use of public funds in the year 2011 in the categories […]

As The Budapest Times writes the EU presented Hungary with ultimatum: either the coutry will prove to the EU that it has its budget under control until 22 June or it will lose a big share of development funds for 2013. In order to meet the EU deficit target (below 3% of GDP) further cuts […]

As The Lithuania Tribune writes Lithuanian GDP increased more than expected in the last quarter of 2011. When it comes to investment data the growth reached 10% and growth of the export, even though slowed down, still exceeds growth of import. At the beginning of the year income of the central government exceeded its expenses. […]

On March 9, 2012 Simeon Djankov, Bulgarian Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister announced that Bulgaria will repay its foreign debt using three sources of income. According to Sofia News Agency novinite.com these sources include “privatization of unnecessary State assets, short-term government securities, and mid-term 5 or 7-year Euro bonds in equal shares“. The […]

The interesting headline written above is not just a key topic of almost all today’s discussions about economics and economic policy but also the

Slovak think tank INESS, the Institute of Economic and Social Studies, calculated the total potential risk exposure related to Eurozone rescue mechanisms on per capita basis. It is published on the institute”s new project website eurokriza.sk (“eurocrisis”). The Euro Bill summarizes total liabilities, guarantees and risk exposure created by bond purchasing programs, which were created […]

INESS released the Bill for Government Services for 2012. The annual price of the state for Slovakia increased by 2% and reached € 4,382 per citizen. The Bill has been distributed by Slovak major opinion making daily SME in January 2012 in printed form, reaching more than 70 000 readers. The goal of If you […]

The Institute for Market Economics publishes a report on fiscal rules, the logic behind their implementation, and history of fiscal rules in several countries. The report also presents