[PEN-L:4262] Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Slovakia and the Czech Republic

["J. Barkley Rosser, Jr." <rosserjb@xxxxxxx>]

Dennis,
     Yes, it is not just since 1997 that the currencies "swooned a bit."  By
and large all three of those have been on crawling pegs of various sorts, or
getting downwardly adjusted one way or another pretty much since the
beginning of the 1990s, with only the Polish zloty having full currency
convertibility throughout.  This has been a deliberate strategy to avoid the
catastrophic outcome that happened in the former GDR with its one-to-one
exchange rate of Ostmark for Deutschemark when those currencies unified.  Of
course Poland in particular has had almost as high an unemployment rate as
did the GDR after its shock therapy, although that situation has been
gradually improving since then, partly aided by zloty depreciation.
Barkley Rosser
-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis R Redmond <dredmond@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wednesday, March 10, 1999 3:59 AM
>Subject: [PEN-L:4260] Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Slovakia and the Czech Republic


>On Tue, 9 Mar 1999, J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. wrote:
>
>> Czech Republic, $7,550
>> Slovak Republic, $ 6,290
>> Hungary, $ 6,050
>> Russia, $ 5,050
>> Latvia, $ 5,010
>> Poland, $ 5,000
>> Ukraine, $ 4,450
>> Bulgaria, $ 4,100.
>
>Suspiciously high numbers, those. The OECD says that the 1997 per
>capita figures, based on then-current exchange rates, gave you a Czech
>Republic at $5050, Hungary at $4461, and Poland at $3509 (quoted from
>www.oecd.org/std/gdpperca.htm). Since then, their currencies have swooned
>a bit, of course.
>
>-- Dennis
>
>