The impact of the economic and COVID-19 crises on the Visegrad Group countries

Purpose. To analyze the development of individual economic indicators, that are key aspects in evaluating the economy of countries in the context of international comparison and competitiveness. Through year-on-year changes, to monitor the development of indicators such as gross value added, total employment and hours worked in the last two crisis periods. To compare the impact of the economic and COVID-19 crises on the mentioned economic indicators and labor productivity in the Visegrad Group countries. Methodology. Several scientific methods suitable for the detection of the impact of crises were used in the article. In particular, elementary time series analysis and index numbers were calculated to detect the most important development trends of selected indicators. Chain indexes and fixed base indexes were figured for the gross value added, employment, number of hours worked, labor productivity per person employed and labor productivity per hour worked. Within the indicators it was searched for the impact of economic and COVID-19 crises. Findings. Analysis of labor productivity and its development in crisis periods, as well as analysis of development of individual indicators from which the productivity was calculated was the key issue of the study. Despite the assumptions of some authors that the pandemic crisis will have a more significant impact on the change of countries economies than the global economic crisis, the study did not support this assumption. The year-on-year changes of the indicator in time of both crises were approximately the same, in some cases we recorded a higher year-on-year decrease in indicators due to the economic crisis and not due to the COVID crisis. Originality. The development of selected indicators including two types of labor productivity within the global economic crisis and the pandemic crisis COVID-19 was subjected to analysis among Visegrad Group countries. Practical value. The analysis of economic indicators carried out on a country-by-country basis can later be used as a support in a deeper analysis of individual indicators and productivity, either within regions of countries or individual sections of national economies, in examining the impact of economic and COVID-19 crises.