COMMON FEATURES AND NATIONAL PECULIARITIES OF THE ECONOMY OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

The common features and national characteristics of the economies of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), which can be regarded as a group of factors contributing to formation of CEE countries regional identity are examined.The relevance of the chosen topic is based on the fact that at the present stage of the world economy development strengthening of the globalization processes and increasing competition for markets and raw materials force many countries to search for new ways to defend national interests. This often requires joint efforts from geographically contiguous states. The policy of the 21st century will be determined by the policy of regions and relations between them. Precisely regions increasingly act as stabilizing centers in various parts of the globe (EU, NAFTA, the Central European Initiative, etc.).By now the region of Central and Eastern Europe actually has been formed in the geopolitical dimension but there is no explicit answer to the question about CEE membership: in the international economic practice there is no consensus on the issue of the countries which could be attributed to this region.The financial crisis of 2007 – 2008 showed that the economies of the CEE region had much in common, faced similar problems and appeared to be extremely interrelated. But often today’s risks might turn out to be potential opportunities for the economy. When used properly, these opportunities may bring the region to a path of sustainable economic growth. Thus, the aim of the paper was to identify common features and national differences in economic development of the region.To achieve the goal, the author investigated the dynamics of several macroeconomic indicators for CEE countries for a maximum period of time for which all countries have credible statistics. On the basis of a comparative analysis of the GDP growth dynamics in industrially developed and CEE economies, the author specified the peculiarities of economic growth in the latter. Special attention was paid to the analysis of the global competitiveness level of the CEE region