ABSTRACT
There were important differences among the V4 countries in the outcomes of transformation and the crisis. Overall, the effect of European Union (EU) membership was important and beneficial to the V4 countries under any heading, although it was not an easy undertaking from the perspective of the crisis. The international crisis had differentiated effects in the V4 countries. This group hosts the only EU member country which never had negative growth during the crisis: Poland. Hungary had a peculiar and important growth of external debt. The growth had already started in 2008 and was due more to the country's difficult financial situation than the effects of the international crisis. In the other three V4 countries, foreign debt did not register any particular variation during the crisis. The Czech Republic had strong economic fundamentals, in particular a balanced financial situation and external position, a credible monetary and exchange rate policy and a healthy bank sector.
