economy

Governments spend financial resources on various functions ranging from healthcare to social protection to education to defence and others. Inevitably, a part of public finance is allocated to the functioning of the bureaucratic system because general public services are necessary for other public services to exist.

Chinese steel is a typical strawman for U.S. politicians. Employment in the U.S. steel industry fell dramatically indeed. There were around 780,000 employees in the sector in the late 1960s and the industry was producing 115 million tons of steel. Today, there are less than 100,000 employees.

According to the results of a representative population survey carried out by “Spinter Research” on behalf of the Lithuanian Free Market Institute, 48% of Lithuanians wish their children pursued a career in entrepreneurship. Yet, the same group associates entrepreneurship with risk, innovation, and hard work.

Polish economic policy should aim to increase the country’s resilience and strengthen economic foundations. The safety margin, in the form of ensuring the appropriate fiscal space, must be maintained not only because of tensions in the world economy, but also in terms ofpossibly less sharp, cyclical slowdown.

The extremely low, 10%-level of female MPs in the Hungarian parliament, and the lack of inequality issues in the political agenda makes it quite relevant to try better know and understand the problems concerning men and women in Hungary as perceived by the voters and the possible social-demographic factors behind them.

After decades of optimism we should start imagining Europe without the EU. If we do not fix that project and make it successful, it may turn out to be mortal. The EU does not need a major structural overhaul or another treaty change. It needs a change of attitudes.

Ranked 16th in the annual Worldwide Index of Economic Freedom by Heritage Foundation, Lithuania surpasses Latvia, but falls behind Estonia. In fact, economic freedom in Lithuania is in a much better shape than it is in the neighboring Latvia (20th) and Poland (45th), but much weaker compared to Estonia (6th).

The rising popularity of nationalist thought all over the world is evident. It has already won several battles in the political competition. Nevertheless, it is important to highlight an interesting occurrence here: nationalists operate with at least two incompatible opinions on the functioning of economy.

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) are a very important part of the Bulgarian economy. Their revenue in 2015 equals 13% of GDP, but even that number underestimates their economic impact. The data show that the financial position of SOEs as a whole has remained bad in recent years.

Year 2016 in Ukraine became a year of starting on the economic recovery path. Real GDP growth in 2016 is estimated at 1.4%. It was supported by higher domestic demand. In particular, real private final consumption increased due to higher disposable income primarily attributed to increase in wage income.