Petőcz Kálmán (szerk.): National Populism and Slovak - Hungarian Relations in Slovakia 2006-2009 (Somorja, 2009)
Zsolt Gál: Argentina on the Danube - Populist Economic Policy as the Biggest Enemy of Sustainable Economic Growth
Argentina on the Danube... foreign indebtedness” (Tóth, 2000, p. 86). The country’s foreign debt increased front 30.6% of GDP in 1996 to 49.9% of GDP in 2000 while the public debt grew from 33.8% of GDP in 1997 to 50.3% of GDP in 2000 (Marcinčin, 2005, p. 46; Eurostat 2009/b). Graph 2 Ineffectiveness of fiscal expansion in small open economies of CEE countries - the case of Slovakia Note: Data for 2009: projected GDP decline is the Finance Ministry's forecast while projected deficit is the author's estimate. Source: Eurostat 2009/b. Structural Indicators, General Economic Background (real GDP growth rate, public balance) and Marcinčin, Anton: Politický vývoj a ekonomické záujmy [Political Development and Economic Interests] (deficit for 1996 and GDP growth j'or 1996-1998), 2005. Not even in Slovakia was fiscal expansion able to boost GDP growth and employment as it merely sustained both indicators in the short term but for a dear price of macroeconomic as well as microeconomic, internal as well as external imbalances, a ballooning debt and an imminent threat of economic collapse. After the new administration adopted the inevitable stabilization package, GDP growth saw a dramatic decline (reaching zero in 1999) and unemployment grew from 12.5% in 1998 to 19.2% in 2001 (Marcinčin, 2005, p. 46). While fiscal policy was not the only reason behind the economic crisis, it ranked among the most important ones.12 195
