FT Special Report | Banking & Finance - Central & Eastern Europe

BANKING & FINANCE Central & Eastern Europe FINANCIAL TIMES SPECIAL REPORT | Friday May 20 2011 Region faces long haul from recession E motions across central and eastern Europe have run the gamut since 2008, from fear of a regional meltdown to relief that... More

BANKING & FINANCE Central & Eastern Europe FINANCIAL TIMES SPECIAL REPORT | Friday May 20 2011 Region faces long haul from recession E motions across central and eastern Europe have run the gamut since 2008, from fear of a regional meltdown to relief that catastrophe had been averted. Now the mood has settled into one of sober realism. Many countries are realising that the climb back from recession is going to be long and hard. Growth will not quickly, if ever, return to the levels of the years before the collapse of Lehman Brothers triggered the global financial crisis. Thanks to co-ordinated international action, there was not a single sovereign default across the former Communist bloc. Many governments and authorities – not to mention populations – in the region also acted with a toughness and determination to correct fiscal and external imbalances that put those farther west and south in Europe to shame. Yet a series of factors has left the region’s performance well behind em Less