Economic growth in the Central East European Union and the Western Balkan countries in the course of Stability and Growth Pact and COVID-19

This research aims to provide an empirical assessment of the relationship between fiscal policy sustainability factors, like fiscal deficit and economic growth in the Western Balkan countries and East European Union Countries, using panel-level data for the yearly time span from 2000-2021. The empirical model provides the impact of fiscal deficit, alongside other control variables like inflation, schooling, total investments, trade openness, and output gap on economic growth in the selected group of countries. For the purpose of research, we employed Static and dynamic panel estimation techniques like Fixed Effects with Driscol and Kraay standard errors and system GMM. The findings confirm that fiscal deficit has significantly affected the growth level in both groups of countries. In addition, when the fiscal deficit has interacted with the COVID-19 dummy, it appears as a growth-enhancing factor. However, when the fiscal deficit interacts with the Eurozone debt crisis period, it becomes a growth-deteriorating factor. Other control variables like inflation, trade openness, total investments, and the output gap are found important factors in explaining the growth performance of the Central East European and Western Balkan countries.