MANAGEMENT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WESTERN BALKAN ECONOMIES DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

The free flow of goods, services, people and capital, and the development of information and communication technology have all made local problems global. The 2007 financial crisis very quickly became global. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a worldwide health crisis, which quickly became an economic one, with threats of becoming a social one as well. The macroeconomic costs of the pandemic are visible in the form of shrinking GDP, the rise of unemployment, as well as fiscal and external imbalance. In all countries fiscal policy was the cornerstone of economic policy in the fight against the consequences of the pandemic. What we can say for certain is that the shock of the pandemic hit the economy both from the aspect of aggregate demand, as well as aggregate supply. In this paper we take a look at how the pandemic affected the economies of the Western Balkan countries, and the scale of the economic downturn they will face in 2020. We will also analyze how effective the public sector, the medical system, and education have been in the fight against the consequences of the pandemic.