Investigation of Development Indicators in the Balkan Countries for the Post-Socialist Period

Abstract

Since the collapse of central economic planning in the world, former Iron Curtain Countries have been changing as social, economic and political structures. Some former socialist countries (such as Bulgaria, Slovenia and Romania) and Greece became full members of the EU. Some Balkan countries (such as Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Macedonia) lived through difficult war years. After the wars, they have started to struggle for the economic, social and political reconstruction process. Each country in the Balkan Peninsula wants bigger real per capita income, a better welfare level, and generally to become a developed country. But these countries have some political, economic and social problems in the development process. The aim of this paper is to analyze Balkan countries in terms of development indicators such as per capita GDP, population growth, life expectancy, consumption potential, education, national income and income distribution in the period of the 2000’s. In addition, new suggestions for accelerating the development process will be discussed at the end of the study. Key Words: Balkan Countries, Development, Development Indicators