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Slovakia: the case for the eurozone
Would Greece have an easier time scrambling out of its economic hole if it returned to the drachma? The evidence from central Europe on the advantage of having your own currency is less than clear cut....
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Slovakia: Fico gets his chance
Robert Fico has won the first stand-alone parliamentary majority in Slovakia’s short history as an independent country, but so far analysts are relatively sanguine about the return to power of the...
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CEE debt: catching the mood
The European Central Bank’s liquidity injections have had a knock-on effect on emerging market fixed income products, including in central Europe, which have seen a strong increase in investor demand...
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Slovakia: Fico sticks to his plan
By Kristina Mikulova in Bratislava Markets are hopeful that Slovakia’s newly re-elected premier Robert Fico will back off from hacking away at earlier liberal economic reforms, but in a conversation...
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Western banks cast gloom over CEE
A quick look at the balance sheets of banks in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland would reveal well-funded institutions that easily meet tough new capital requirements – the kind of thing that...
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Bratislava: CEE’s picture postcard
Small, peripheral eurozone economies are out of fashion but Slovakia looks to be bucking the wider trend, successfully placing a $1.5bn bond issue this week and racing to lock in most of this year’s...
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Fico: austerity rules
It used to be that centre-left governments would make a run for growth by ramping up government spending while soaking the rich. But in these straitened times, even the left is keeping commitments to...
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Peugeot: France’s loss is CEE’s gain
A day of gloom for the French car industry is simply another working day for the central European car sector, where factories are churning out ever-greater numbers of vehicles and increasing their...
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Guest post: Slovakia’s time warp is a step to the left
By Otilia Simkova of Eurasia Group The first 100 days in power for Slovakia’s Direction–Social Democracy (SMER-SD) government saw a sharp turn to the left that foreshadows an uncomfortable future for...
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CEE GDP data: austerity bites
The European Union’s new member states in eastern Europe are mostly out of the eurozone. But they aren’t free of its economic troubles. Hungary has joined the Czech Republic in recession, according to...
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Slovakia gains as manufacturers transfer jobs from western to central Europe
The economic gloom seeping out of western Europe is creating increasing difficulties for the small and open economies of central Europe – with both Hungary and the Czech Republic now in recession....
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CEE carmakers: Poland slips back, as Slovakia and the Czech Republic roar ahead
The production line at Opel’s factory in Gliwice in southern Poland is humming, with a steady stream of new Astra models rolling out of the factory – but a chat with factory executives reveals a much...
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Eastern Europe: fiscal policy lessons
Western Europe tends not to look to eastern Europe for lessons in economic management, but in these straitened times it makes sense to consider the big differences in the impact of the global crisis on...
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CEE: eurozone recession bites
The eurozone recession is biting hard in central Europe. According to flash data published on Thursday, third-quarter GDP fell in Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic compared with the previous...
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Czechs in €2.6bn Slovak gas deal
Germany’s Eon and France’s GDF Suez have struck a deal to sell their joint venture in a Slovak natural gas company to the Czech Republic’s Energeticky a Prumyslovy Holding (EPH) for about €2.6bn...
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CEE GDP: the gloom returns
The numbers are in and they’re not pretty. Growth in central Europe is only at a sluggish 0.8 per cent – lower than any time since the depths of the economic crisis in 2009.Continue reading »
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Poland: Warsaw region GDP per capita beats EU average
Poland’s long scramble to catch up to western Europe has hit a new milestone – for the first time a Polish region has a higher per capita GDP than the EU average. Mazowsze, the central Polish region...
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Austerity losing ground in CEE
The global battle between Austerians and Spendanigans has opened a front in central Europe and the Spendanigans appear to be gaining ground. In an interview with the FT, Robert Fico, the centre-left...
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Hungary’s GDP: welcome surprise
Bad GDP figures from the eurozone on Wednesday but there’s a pleasant surprise from an unexpected quarter: Hungary’s economy contracted by only 0.9 percent in annual terms in the first three months....
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CEE: out of the woods? Not really
A note from Capital Economics on Friday suggests the economies of central and eastern Europe may finally be emerging into the light. Or at least its title does (Emerging Europe: Slump in regional...
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