An Overview of Economic Growth in Central and Eastern Europe

TFinancial development is one of the most studied topics in specialized literature due to the significant role it plays in the development of countries. The development of the financial sector takes place in the process of establishing and growing financial institutions, traded instruments and financial markets that support investment and economic growth, with favorable effects on reducing poverty and increasing the welfare of the population. In the framework of this article, in the first part I will analyze the main theoretical approaches regarding financial development and the possibilities of its quantification, and in the second part I will measure financial development from a quantitative point of view, in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe , for the period 2007-2017. For quantitative measurement, we construct a 5- variable composite index that measures the size and depth of banking, equity and insurance markets. In this sense, we used as variables for the quantitative quantification of financial development: the internal credit granted to the private sector by banks, the volume of general insurance premiums, the volume of life insurance premiums, stock market capitalization and international debt issues, all related to GDP.