The recent outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has made a significant impact on the global financial markets. The aim of this paper is to assess the short-term reaction of the Visegrad countries’ financial markets to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Visegrad Group is a political alliance of four Central European countries, namely Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. The financial assessment is based on the EUR/CZK, EUR/HUF, and EUR/PLN exchange rates and the major blue-chip stock market indices, that is Prague PX, Budapest BUX, Warsaw WIG20, and Bratislava SAX. It is evident that the ongoing pandemic has changed the expectations of the financial market participants about the future value of exchange rates in the Visegrad countries. This study indicates that, as a consequence of COVID-19, higher probability has been attached to the large depreciation of the Czech koruna (CZK), the Hungarian forint (HUF), and the Polish zloty (PLN) than to their large appreciation. Moreover, based on the TGARCH model, the positive and significant correlation between the number of reported COVID-19 cases and the exchange rates has been confirmed, implying that the ongoing pandemic has resulted in the depreciation of the Visegrad currencies. Additionally, the result of the TGARCH model reveals that there is a significant and negative link between the Visegrad stock market indices and the COVID-19 spread.

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The study aims to explore the sources of competitiveness of dairy producers before and after the abolition of milk quotas in selected EU member states. The investigation is based on the stochastic frontier modelling of an input distance function in the specification of the four-error-component model. The model is estimated with a multistep procedure employing the generalized method of moments estimator, addressing the potential endogeneity of netputs, and panel data gained from the FADN database. The results revealed that total factor productivity experienced an increasing trend in the majority of the analysed countries. Since the main driver of productivity growth was found to be the scale effect, our findings support the hypothesis that abolishing milk quotas has a positive effect.

Th e paper analyses the current position of the Russian Federation in the global market of agricultural products and foodstuff s with the accent on the comparative advantage of Russian agricultural exports in relation to specifi c regions and states. Th e key purpose of the research is to classify the most signifi cant changes in the structure of Russian agricultural exports. Th e results show that the structure of Russian trade is changing continuously and evolving along with the process of economic transformation and trade liberalization. Exports become less diversifi ed and are concentrated in a few segments. From the perspective of comparative advantage, cereals, fi sh and vegetable oils are the segments of Russian exports which become more signifi cant. Th e comparative advantages of Russian exports are strengthening mostly in the case of African, Asian and CIS countries.

Agriculture is one of the leading and largest economic sectors in the nation of Uzbekistan. The share of employees in the agricultural sector is 33% of the population. The annual growth rate of the agricultural sector is 1.7%, and it accounts for 18% of GDP. Agriculture provides jobs for approximately 15 million people, many of whom are part-time workers. During the years 2000-2018, the value of agrarian trade turnover increased from cc 520 million USD to 2.8 billion USD. This paper examines Uzbek foreign trade in agricultural products from the following perspectives: trade balance of Uzbekistan and international competitiveness. The intention of the paper is to determine changes in the character of agricultural trade. Changes in the product structure are identified, and individual changes are explained. The comparative advantages are analyzed according to different groups of countries (Asian countries without CIS countries, CIS without Asian countries, EU28 without other European countries, other European countries without EU and CIS countries, and developing countries). Agrarian trade competitiveness and territorial and commodity structure changes are analyzed for the last 19 years (2000-2018). The commodity structure of agricultural trade is analyzed on the basis of the standard Harmonized System. The source of information in the article is UN COMTRADE. The analysis is based on the following method and indexes: "product mapping approach" method, Herfindahl-Hirschman index,

The paper, based on RCA, LFI and GL indices, and logistic regression analysis, allowed us to track the dynamics of the comparative advantage/disadvantage of the Czech Republic in individual commodity aggregates in relation to individual EU partners, and to comprehend the role of the main production factors. The only production factor with a statistically significant effect is capital. Trade with countries richly endowed with agricultural land and capital, in most cases, appeared not favorable for the Czech Republic in terms of having a comparative advantage over them, if measured with LFI index. The values of the GL index disclosed that trade with these countries is mostly of an inter-industry character. The analysis revealed the following top-3 mostly competitive Czech aggregates: S3-08 (animal feed stuff), S3-06 (sugar and sugar preparations), along with S3-04 (cereals and cereal preparations). Some aggregates appeared to not have any comparative advantage: S3-01 (meat, meat preparations), S3-05 (vegetables and fruits), and S3-41 (animal oils and fats). Speaking of developmental trends, from 2000 to 2019 the Czech Republic has managed to improve its position in agri-food trade within the EU-27 by 43.81% if measured with LFI, and by 51.63% if measured with RCA. These positive changes also appeared to be statistically significant.

The question of the sources of agricultural competitiveness is widely discussed on the farm and sectoral levels in the European Union. This paper assesses the competitiveness of the plant production using the combination of trade measures and strategic management measures in the selected European countries related to the Czech Republic. Thus, the paper evaluates and identifies the sources of competitiveness of plant production. In the case of Belgium and the Netherlands, labour and capital factors have a significant influence on production; in the case of the new member states, these factors are less important, and, conversely, market competitiveness factors are more crucial. The continuous convergence process between Belgium and the Netherlands is illustrated. The divergence between the Netherlands and the rest of the countries is also visible. There is a stable connection between the Czech Republic and Austria, France, and Slovakia. It can be mentioned that there is no statistically significant difference in the comparative advantage between 2005 and 2019, except in the case of France. Analysing sources of competitiveness among the countries of interest is a possible tool for the future direction of trade policies.

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