Belarus will be the last eastern European country to emerge from recession this year – and may turn in one more year of negative growth if things go badly. Belarus has been pulled down by a ... more
Amid bleak forecasts from EC and IMF related to the imminent fiscal slippage (EC projects 3.5%-of-GDP deficit this year, 0.5% of GDP above government’s target), Romania announced in May 2017 robust ... more
Ukraine has got off to a poor start in 2017. When Russia crashed in 1998 the economy bounced back the next year growing by a record 10% y/y. Ukraine is not enjoying much of a bounce despite the fact ... more
Russia’s recession is over but that doesn't mean the standards of living are improving or the people feel any more confident about the future. Economic growth was about 1% in the first quarter ... more
Iranian economic growth in the first half of the Persian year (started March 20, 2016) amounted to 7.4%, according to the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Governor Valiollah Seif. This is an improvement on ... more
Poland’s GDP grew 2.8% in 2016, the slowest expansion in three years, on the back of weakest investment since 2010. The result was below the government’s outlook of 3-3.2%, which was anyway a ... more
The commodity-dependent Kazakh economy is experiencing one of its toughest years in over a decade as a result of low oil and other commodity prices together with a slowdown in major trading partners ... more
Romania’s macroeconomic outlook improved but the growth rates of around 4% expected by independent analysts could be compromised by risky fiscal policies embarked by the government in their attempt ... more
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed victory in Turkey's hotly contested but controversial referendum on introducing an executive-style presidency with sweeping powers. The razor-thin victory ... more
Belarus’ economy returned to growth after two years of recession, expanding a modest 0.3% y/y between January and March. Economy Minister Vladimir Zinovskiy attributed the growth to lower ... more
Ukraine has made some real progress on the reform front and two key reforms are on the docket for this year: land ownership liberalization and pension reform that could transform the country. ... more
Russia’s economic recovery continues and growth should go positive in the first half of this year, but it remains weak and fragile without the badly needed structural reforms and/or a boost in oil ... more
The EC lowered its 2017 economic growth estimation for Montenegro to 3.7%, and said that increasing domestic demand should make a stronger contribution to GDP growth this year, but will be offset by ... more
he International Monetary Fund (IMF) has put its loan agreement with Bosnia & Herzegovina on hold as the country has failed to implement reforms it had agreed with the fund. If the country wants to ... more
This report covers the key economic, financial and political releases for Bulgaria for the period January 1 – April 28. On April 27, President Rumen Radev handed a mandate to form a government ... more
This is going to be a tough year for Belarus. The economy is still in recession and should be growing modestly, but pressure from Russia due to a row over energy subsidies means it is not. The ... more
The political tensions have further eased through March, but the activity of Romania’s government is still hindered by hardly functional political majority. A conflict within the junior ruling ... more
The commodity-dependent Kazakh economy is experiencing one of its toughest years in over a decade as a result of low oil and other commodity prices together with a slowdown in major trading partners ... more
Ukraine’s economy has passed its nadir, but it is bouncing of and extremely low base indeed. The fourth quarter growth in 2016 was a robust 4.6%, following a 15.5% collapse a year earlier. But as ... more
Russia’s economy returned to growth again in the fourth quarter of 2016 ending seven consecutive quarters of recession. Revised data upgraded growth to a meager 0.3% of growth in the last quarter ... more