Central, eastern and southeastern Europe moving into slow lane: WIIW

Source: Xinhua| 2019-03-28 01:03:24|Editor: yan
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VIENNA, March 27 (Xinhua) -- The boom experienced by much of the Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESEE) region in 2017-2018 is over, and growth rates will mostly trend lower in the next two to three years, according to a new forecast for CESEE published by the prestigious Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW) here on Wednesday.

The fastest growing economies in 2019-2021 will be Kosovo, Albania and Moldova, while the slowest will be Russia, Belarus and Turkey, said the Austrian think tank.

Weaker global growth, U.S. protectionism, Brexit and ongoing problems in the eurozone represent a serious threat to CESEE's export-reliant economies, it noted.

Increasingly severe labour shortages are pushing up wages, and this in turn is driving fairly strong growth in private consumption. This could also threaten external competitiveness and prompt foreign investors to look elsewhere, said the WIIW.

In the long run, CESEE countries face a host of formidable challenges: demographic decline unprecedented in peacetime; attacks on the quality and independence of institutions; a lack of preparedness for the new digital economy; and low levels of automation relative to frontrunners in Asia, north America and western Europe, it added.

WIIW has been number four among the world's best think tanks in the international economics category since 2016, according to the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) of the University of Pennsylvania.

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