Economic divergence between Poland and The Ukraine from the perspective of their balances of payment

The paper aims to look at the phenomenon of the economic divergence between Poland and Ukraine from the perspective of the dynamics of the balances of payments in both countries. It is assumed that the differences in the paths of economic development are reflected in the current and financial flows, which are recorded in their balances of payments. The model for testing the potential determinants of economic divergence between Poland and Ukraine resulting from their balances of payments was based on univariate linear regressions. The study was carried out based on the annual data collected from the World Bank (WDI) for the period 1995–2001. A significant positive relationship between the dynamics of the economic divergence between Poland and Ukraine was found in the dynamics of (i) trade openness, (ii) trade and services balances, (iii) capital transfers, (iv) FDI liabilities – a proxy for FDI inflows, and (v) FDI assets – a proxy for direct investments carried out by residents. The dynamics of the differences in the primary and secondary accounts between both countries were negatively correlated with the level of divergence between Poland and Ukraine. The larger differences between the GDPs of Poland and Ukraine occurred despite the deteriorating primary account in Poland and despite the large inflows of current transfers recorded in the secondary account in Ukraine.