Developments in the Available Inequality Indexes for the Western Balkan Countries: Trends in the last 10 Years

In this chapter we analyse the level of inequality in Western Balkan countries, particularly in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, during the past ten years. Inequality is one of the main challenges both for the economic theory and economies of the world today. Wage gaps widened and household income inequality increased in a large majority of OECD countries in the three decades before the recent economic crisis. Before the economic crises countries of Western Balkan region recorded economic growth. There was an increase in GNI per capita and HDI all over the region. The data on inequality in western Balkan countries are scarce – they are not available for all countries for the whole period 2001-2011. According to available data Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia belong to the group of the countries with low level of inequality, while Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina have medium level of inequality. The highest levels of Gini coefficient over the period are present in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia. While in Serbia this indicator decreased and in Montenegro it was stable, in other countries it slightly increased over a period.