THE EFFECT OF REAL EXCHANGE RATE CHANGES ON CROATIAN BILATERAL TRADE BALANCES

The impact of exchange rate fluctuations on merchandise volume has been a major issue for policymakers and economists. The purpose of this study is to examine whether bilateral real exchange rate changes in Croatia have any significant impact on trade balances between Croatia and her six main trading partners (Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom and France), except Bosnia and Herzegovina due to the lack of data. The relationship between the exchange rate and trade balance need to give answer whether depreciation results in increase in export volume and decrease in import volume to overcome the increase in import prices. The present study also tests, using generalized impulse response function, for the J-curve as a J-shaped time path of the trade balance in responses to depreciation. That means that after such an exchange rate change, the trade balance initially falls and then slowly rises, perhaps to a higher level than initially. The results do not provide empirical support for the J-curve. Impulse response function shows that after a current depreciation, there will be a dip in the export-import ratio. The long-run export-import ratio appears to be higher than the point of this early dip in four out of six cases. However, in all cases, the export-import ratio does not achieve higher long-run equilibrium than the initial one, after the depreciation