COMPILING INDICATORS OF THE DEGREE OF INTEGRATION BETWEEN THE EAEU MEMBER -STATES

In this article the authors explain the need to improve monitoring instruments for the integration processes within the EAEU. They also argue that in order to better the information support of managerial decisions it is very important to develop methodological principles and methodical provision for evaluating economic effects of integration processes in the EAEU member-states. In this regard the authors review three aspects of cooperation among the EAEU countries (foreign trade, exchange of services and exchange of capital) and assesses the adequacy of the indicators that are used today to reflect the degree of integration of a single EAEU member-country with a group of EAEU partners on a quantitative example of Russia’s external economic relations in 2013-2015.
It is necessary to expand the system of indicators aimed mostly at multi-aspect reflection of inter-country exchange of services at the expanse of the following indicators: the amount of accumulated capital in the countries’ economies as a result of mutual direct investment; the assessment of the relative degree of integration - using the reference method; the magnitude of real shifts in the degree of integration- using the physical volume indices of indicators. The authors propose approaches to its formation and justify the demand in additional information and statistical support. Methodological proposals for the new indicators are illustrated with experimental calculations for Russia.
The choice of the GDP as the denominator in the formula for calculating the integration index (by any of the three integration directions) is proved to be valid. The article presents several suggestions on other possible approaches to generating the denominator for the formula with which the strength of integration relationships is estimated. There are examples illustrating differences in assessments depending on the methodological approach - the choice of a particular indicator of economic performance (used in assessing the degree of integration) and insights regarding if there has been a positive shift in the degree of integration or there was none. The authors emphasize the debatable nature of the question of preferring one approach to another in estimating the degree of integration of the EAEU member-states.

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