The Reflection of the Current Crisis on the Economic Growth in the European Union New Member States

The paper presents an analysis of the economic growth evolution in the European Unionnew member states, being part of a more comprehensive research regarding the euro adoptionchallenges, taking as benchmark Slovakia and Slovenia, countries that already entered the euro zone.The research underlines the fact that, starting with the mid-September 2008, the macroeconomiclandscape of the analyzed countries changed radically, registering a decrease of the economicactivities determined both by a diminished export activity and by a reduced internal demand, witheffects on the firms’ profitability and on the deterioration of the labour market situation. The resultsshow that the severity of the financial global crisis effects was different in the analyzed countries, as aresponse to various “paths” of economic development, with less or more important vulnerabilities,with differences in the extent to which the economies are based on external demand and on creditactivity induced from abroad. The countries that are suffering the deepest recessions are those thatregistered not only a decline of exports, but also a collapse of the internal demand, as a result ofstopping the credit activities that were a support for the internal demand.