During the downturn, the average GDP growth rate
in Latvia was -2.46 % per quarter. Even recovery
after crises was fast for Latvia's economy, but the
country did not exceed the same growth rates as in
the 2000-2008 period. From 2010Q4 to 2017Q2
Latvia's GDP growth rate was 0.9 % per quarter.
On the other hand, Appendix 9 shows the
business cycle stage of Estonia, where it is observed
that during 1995-2008 expansion and slowdown
business cycle stages occurred in Estonia. The GDP
growth during the 1995Q2-19997Q3 expansion
stage was 1.83%, and during the 1997Q4-1998Q2
slowdown stage was 0.95%, while during the
1998Q3-2007Q4 expansion stage was 1.45% per
quarter. After a long period of GDP growth, the
Estonian economy experienced a downturn during
2008Q1-2009Q1. During this downturn, the average
GDP growth rate was -3.23% per quarter.
According to, [39], Estonia has hardly experienced
past crises due to speculative bubbles in asset and
financial markets.
Based on the HP filter method, a full business
cycle was distinguished in Lithuania from the 1999
Q1 trough to the 2009 Q3 trough. During 1995-
2017, the main business cycle phases were
slowdown and expansion, which have a positive
output gap (Appendix 11). The average GDP growth
during the expansion phases in Lithuania was
1.16%. The average GDP growth during slowdown
periods was 1.63% (Appendix 11 shows Lithuania's
GDP growth during different business cycle
periods). As represented in Appendix 11 and
Appendix 12, we can observe that during the
periods 1998-1999 and 2008-2010, Lithuania had
slowdown and expansion stages when the output
gap was negative, which, according to, [25], was
caused by the Russian crisis in 1998 and the
financial crisis in 2008-2009. During the 2008Q2-
2009Q3 downturn, Lithuania's quarterly GDP
growth rate was -2.5%. Lithuania survived the last
crises with hard consequences, by decreasing GDP,
increasing unemployment, increasing migration, and
decreasing capital flows, while the 1998-1999
downturn was a temporary decrease in exports.
Using the HP filter method, we found a
downturn period in 1998-1999 only in Lithuania,
but Latvia and Estonia also verified a decline in
their GDP growth in the same period. This was
explained by, [39], [40], and, [41], by the impact of
the Russian economic downturn when the Russian
currency was devalued, which affected Baltic
exports. Even in 1998, the Baltic countries and
Russian business cycles were strongly related, from
that time the Baltic countries integrated into the EU
and established relations with Western European
countries, which means that the Russian influence
on the Baltic countries' business cycle dynamics is
decreasing in these days.
As can be seen in Appendix 6 and Appendix 13,
the Baltic countries and the selected Western
European countries passed through a downturn
phase in 2008-2009. However, the decline in GDP
in the Baltic countries is higher than in the Western
European countries. [38], explains this fact on the
basis of stronger recession in Baltic countries as a
result of an overheated economy. According to this
author, between 2000 and 2008, the economies of
Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia verified economic
growth due to high domestic consumption, easy
access to cheap credit, and rapid inflow of foreign
investment. Foreign investment between 1994 and
2008 averaged about 8% of GDP in Estonia, more
than 5% in Latvia, and almost 4% in Lithuania. This
made the Baltic countries particularly sensitive to
changes in external markets. However, the financial
crises reduced all foreign capital inflows, especially
in the financial and banking sectors. The loss of
exports, foreign capital inflows, and high debt levels
were factors in the deepest recession in the EU in
2008-2009.
5 Conclusion
After analysing the obtained results, we can say that
the business cycle dynamics of the Baltic countries
are dependent on external shocks, which is in line
with the main conclusions of, [25]. We tested the
business cycle correlation between the Baltic
countries and the Western European countries, and
the results show that the Baltic countries are highly
correlated with each other, above 0.85. These results
are also consistent with those of, [25], who
explained that there is a high business cycle
correlation between Baltic countries because these
countries trade extensively with each other and have
common import and export markets. Finally, the
correlation between the business cycles of the Baltic
countries and the business cycles of the Western
European countries was examined. Estonia's
business cycle was most correlated with the
business cycles of the Western countries (0.85 with
France, 0.74 with Germany, and 0.72 with the UK),
while Latvia's business cycle correlated with France
and the UK around 0.6, with Germany 0.68 and
Lithuania's business cycle correlated with Germany
0.74, with the UK 0.71 and with France 0.64.
So, in conclusion, we found that the business
cycles of the Baltic countries and Western European
countries are becoming more synchronised, as the
correlation coefficients between these countries are
WSEAS TRANSACTIONS on BUSINESS and ECONOMICS
DOI: 10.37394/23207.2023.20.222
Rimas Zienius, Elisabeth T. Pereira