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
Albania is facing a challenging year as the main opposition Democratic Party is threatening to boycott June 18 general election after it launched protests in February and is also boycotting the ... 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
Turkey remains in a difficult place both politically and economically that is weighing on growth. Analysts expect Turkey to be dogged by this uncertainty for at least two years depressing the ... more
Poland’s GDP grew 2.8% in 2016, the slowest expansion in three years, missing the government’s assumption for a 3.5% expansion. What economic expansion there was in 2016 was driven almost ... more
Turkey remains in a difficult place both politically and economically that is weighing on growth. Analysts expect Turkey to be dogged by this uncertainty for at least two years depressing the ... 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
Poland’s GDP grew 2.8% in 2016, the slowest expansion in three years, missing the government’s assumption for a 3.5% expansion. What economic expansion there was in 2016 was driven almost ... more
Romania ended 2016 with an impressive growth of around 4.8%. The new government, formed by the leftist alliance of Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (Alde) ... more
Ukraine's economy has been in recovery since 3Q15, for the past year and a half. The 2016 full-year real GDP rose 1.4% YoY. The current trend data derived from seasonally adjusted series of monthly ... more
Not much has change in the first two months of this year. Russia’s economy continues to recover and show modest growth, but this is unlikely to accelerate this year to anything beyond 1.5%. ... more