Comparative Multidimensional Analysis of the Current State of European Economies Based on the Complex of Macroeconomic Indicators

Abstract

The stability of the economy of any country is primarily determined by the totality of macroeconomic indicators that describe the current economic state. This article provides a multi-dimensional analysis of the macroeconomic situation in Europe according to the data of 2020. The purpose of the article is to give a clear idea of the relative position of the economies of European countries, their proximity or the significance of their differences to determine each country’s place in the overall European economic system. Research objectives: (1) to identify the necessary macroeconomic indicators for the research; (2) to determine the direction of the impact of these indicators on the economic situation of European countries; (3) to carry out a cluster division of the studied countries with the identification of the main characteristics of each cluster; (4) to identify the main macroeconomic indicators that determine the level of welfare of European countries, (5) to reduce the dimension of the multi-dimensional economic space using integrated latent factors, (6) to build a fuzzy mathematical model to predict the level of welfare of the country when the specified values of latent factors are achieved. The methodological basis of the analysis is the methods of processing multi-dimensional information, such as multi-dimensional scaling, cluster analysis, factor analysis, multivariate regression analysis, analysis of variance, discriminant analysis, and fuzzy modelling methods. The multivariate data processing was performed using the SPSS and FuzzyTech computer programs. The results obtained in the article can be useful in carrying out macroeconomic reforms to improve the economic condition of the countries.