All four nations in the Visegrád Group are
high-income countries with a very high
Human Development Index. V4 countries have experienced more or less steady
economic growth for over a century.
History and categorization Economic transformation from
communist central-planning to
democratic market-economy was one of the goals of the Visegrad cooperation and was seen as an integral part of the so-called “Return to Europe”. The Visegrad countries succeeded to various levels and managed to overcome the economic slump after the 1989 revolution during the 1990s. With integration into the European Union, they chose an export-led FDI-dependent growth model. Not only due to their geographical proximity to Germany, but also due to their elite's decision to protect their industrial heritage, they became manufacturing hubs for Western European companies, foremost for the German automotive sector. This strategy differentiates Visegrad countries from other (semi)peripheral economies like the
Baltic states (dependent on a debt-driven model) or
Southern Europe (debt-based consumption-led model). In 2009, Slovakia adopted the
euro as its official currency, being the only member of the group to have done so. All four countries are eventually obliged to adopt the euro in the future and to join the
Eurozone once they have satisfied the
euro convergence criteria by the
Treaty of Accession since they joined the
EU.
GDP (per capita) If counted as a single country, the Visegrád Group's
GDP would be the 4th in the EU, 5th in Europe and 15th in the world. In terms of international trade, the V4 is not only at the forefront of Europe, but also of the world (4th in the EU, 5th in Europe and 8th in the world). Based on gross domestic product per capita (PPP) estimated figures for 2020, the most developed country in the group is the Czech Republic (US$40,858 per capita), followed by Slovakia (US$38,321 per capita), Hungary (US$35,941 per capita) and Poland (US$35,651 per capita). The average GDP (PPP) in 2019 for the entire group is estimated at US$34,865.
Nuclear energy Within the EU, the V4 countries are pro-
nuclear-power, and are seeking to expand or found (in the case of Poland) a nuclear-power industry. They have sought to counter what they see as an anti-nuclear-power bias within the EU, believing their countries would benefit from nuclear power.
Czech Republic , Czech Republic The
economy of the Czech Republic is the group's second largest (GDP PPP of US$432.346 billion total, ranked 36th in the world). Within the V4, the Czech Republic has the highest
Human Development Index,
Human Capital Index,
nominal GDP per capita as well as
GDP at purchasing power parity per capita.
Hungary , Hungary Hungary has the group's third largest economy (total GDP of US$350.000 billion, 53rd in the world). Hungary was one of the more developed economies of the Eastern bloc. With about $18 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) since 1989, Hungary has attracted over one-third of all FDI in central and eastern Europe, including the former Soviet Union. Of this, about $6 billion came from American companies. Now it is an industrial agricultural state. The main industries are engineering, mechanical engineering (cars, buses), chemical, electrical, textile, and food industries. The services sector accounted for 64.8% of GDP in 2017 (est.). The main sectors of Hungarian industry are heavy industry (mining, metallurgy, machine and steel production), energy production, mechanical engineering, chemicals, food industry, and automobile production. The industry is leaning mainly on processing industry and (including construction) accounted for 29.32% of GDP in 2008. The leading industry is machinery, followed by the chemical industry (plastic production, pharmaceuticals), while mining, metallurgy and textile industry seemed to be losing importance in the past two decades. In spite of the significant drop in the last decade, the food industry still contributes up to 14% of total industrial production and amounts to 7–8% of the country's exports. Agriculture accounted for 4.3% of GDP in 2008 and along with the food industry occupied roughly 7.7% of the labour force. Tourism employs nearly 150,000 people and the total income from tourism was 4 billion euros in 2008. One of Hungary's top tourist destinations is
Lake Balaton, the largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, with 1.2 million visitors in 2008. The most visited region is Budapest; the Hungarian capital attracted 3.61 million visitors in 2008. Hungary was the world's 24th most visited country in 2011.
Poland , Poland Poland has the region's largest economy (
GDP PPP total of US$1.353 trillion, ranked 22nd in the world). According to the
United Nations and the
World Bank, it is a high-income country with a high quality of life and a very high standard of living. The Polish economy is the sixth-largest in the EU and one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe, with a yearly growth rate of over 3.0% between 1991 and 2019. Poland was the only European Union member to have avoided a decline in GDP during the late-2000s recession, and in 2009 created the most GDP growth of all countries in the EU. The Polish economy had not entered recession nor contracted. According to Poland's Central Statistical Office, in 2011 the Polish economic growth rate was 4.3%, the best result in the entire EU. The largest component of its economy is the service sector (67.3%), followed by industry (28.1%) and agriculture (4.6%). Since increased private investment and EU funding assistance, Poland's infrastructure has developed rapidly. Poland's main industries are
mining, machinery (
cars,
buses,
ships),
metallurgy, chemicals, electrical goods,
textiles, and
food processing. The high-technology and IT sectors are also growing with the help of investors such as
Google,
Toshiba,
Dell,
GE,
LG, and
Sharp. Poland is a producer of many electronic devices and components.
Slovakia The smallest, but still considerably powerful V4 economy is that of Slovakia (GDP of US$209.186 billion total, 68th in the world). Its main industries is services, with it being the biggest per capita automaker. While in services is most prominent in it hosting many international firms like IBM, Lenovo,SAP and Amazon but also having homegrown firms like Eset and Sygic. It has the second highest GDP per capita after the Czech Republic. ==Demographics==