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The article presents information on the trends in the global economy and their implications on Yugoslavia. Considering the world economy as a whole, global economic trends during the last decade of the twentieth century can be considered positive from the point of view of the long-term conditions for economic growth and development. But with reference to a more detailed analysis of the positions of various regions and countries, the outlook is a more complex and multicolored one, which portends grey and even dark nuances for some parts of the world. The frequently cited slogan that poverty anywhere will bring poverty everywhere is only applicable from the point of view of formal economic logic. Considering the real economic world, however, the level of its globalization, particularly as measured by the intensity of international economic integration, is unlikely to fulfill that logic. Disparities in the levels of economic development, rates of economic growth, standards of living and economic and social traditions in the modern world provide the best argument that various degrees of economic prosperity are likely to be sustained for different areas of the world. By the same token, some parts of the world have their economic equilibrium at a very low level of income and employment, including the extreme levels of poverty. These economic realities can be confirmed by reference to any of the various statistical sources published by national, international, official and non-governmental institutions.

The article presents information on the revival of Yugoslav foreign trade after the suspension of sanctions. The performance of the foreign trade sector represents one of the most direct as well as most complex outcomes of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) efforts to rejoin the world market after the suspension of the embargo imposed by the United Nations, alt the end of the 1995. The trade results of 1996 failed to meet the, for the most part, highly overoptimistic expectations within the FRY, and even less the real needs of the Yugoslav economy, not to speak of its improvement. Foreign trade has been crucial to the Yugoslav economy since the founding of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) at the end of World War II. The Titoist government of the SFRY was determined to build the Yugoslav economy on the basis of active involvement in the world market, and it was aided in that task by the ample economic assistance it requested and received from the international community. The SFRY was among the founders of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and an active member of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Other former European socialist countries did not join these international institutions until after 1989. The most important step taken by the SFRY to advance its participation in the world market was the abandonment of its state monopoly in foreign trade in 1966. Yugoslavia allowed its firms to have direct contact and trade with foreign companies.

Recent events in former Yugoslavia reveal that if a political structure is breaking down, it is difficult, if not impossible, to keep a multi-national state together on the basis of economic rationality alone. Once the political structure has been broken, economic, cultural and other ties that provide some coherence among relatively small groups do not have the strength to solidify and homogenize a multinational state. The economic costs resulting from the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia's market are difficult to assess. Recent efforts to analyze the costs are ambitious, but suffer from methodological and emotional-imperfections. The fragmented information available clearly reveals, however, that the economic losses from market disintegration run to tens of billions of dollars, without even taking into account the human and material losses resulting from the wars that have raged with brutal consequences since 1991. After the nationalistic outbursts associated with the secession of Slovenia and Croatia subside, perhaps the harsh facts concerning the costs of secession will become clear. Then, economic cooperation might revive.