The economy of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe will have negative growth this year, but will recover again in the next two years, according to the Vienna International Economic Institute WIIW, which points out that Serbia, Turkey and Lithuania will reach economic levels faster than the rest of Europe.
The economic recovery, however, will be very slow, WIIW predicts.
Experts from the Vienna Institute also point out that there is a “huge number of uncertainties” regarding the coronavirus pandemic, so the risk of poor development is very high.
For the entire area, WIIW expects that the economic level of 2019 will be reached in 2022. At the same time, economists assume that the pandemic will be suppressed without long conclusions and that an effective vaccine will be found.
Faster, that is, already in 2021, Serbia, Turkey and Lithuania will reach the level that their economies had in 2019.
By 2023, there will be a recovery, that is, reaching pre-crisis levels in Croatia, Bulgaria and Montenegro. Only the Belarusian economy will have negative growth not only this year, but also next year.
WIIW experts point out that the economy recovered well from the corona measures from the spring in the third quarter, but due to new restrictions in the fall, a new decline is inevitable.
Basically, WIIW is optimistic for the whole region, as soon as the virus is brought under control. Thus, there could be a turnaround in the economy by returning production from Asia to Eastern Europe, and digitalization should lead to a new “boom”.
– Overall, growth in the countries of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe and in the medium term will be significantly higher than that of Western Europe – said WIIW, Kamatica reports.
