In Ukraine, booming private consumption and a bumper harvest contributed to an impressive 5% GDP growth in 2011. The budget situation improved markedly, and currency depreciation pressures were successfully counteracted. However, the recent monetary policy tightening coupled with weak external...

Iraq crisis, oil price and economies in transition (by Vasily Astrov) Countries covered Iraq Iraq and the Balkans (by Vladimir Gligorov) Countries covered Iraq, Balkan States Structural change and productivity growth in Central and Eastern Europe (by Peter Havlik) Countries covered CEE Poland's...

Graph of the month Europe Brent Spot Price, fob per barrel, in current USD and euro and real year 2005 euro (p. 1) Opinion corner Russia-Ukraine conflict do Western sanctions have any effect? (by Vasily Astrov, Vladimir Gligorov, Peter Havlik, Michael Landesmann and Olga Pindyuk; pp. 2-6)...

Since the start of transition, the currencies of most East European countries have experienced an abrupt real depreciation, followed by a trend real appreciation over the subsequent years. Within the framework of a panel-data study for eight Central European transition countries - Hungary, the...

Russian oil and gas are playing a vital role in the world markets, but they also represent an important and (still) the most successful part of the national economy. However, whether the oil and gas sector will become an engine for the country's development in the medium and long run depends to...

The last decade of the past century has been dominated by growing decentralization in Russia, both in economic and political terms. The major factors driving decentralization were the weakness of the federal government and of President Yeltsin, as well as the poor performance of the federal...

The EU, on the one hand, and Russia and Ukraine, on the other, are very unequal partners in nearly all respects - a fact manifesting itself also in their economic relations. The EU is a relatively important trading partner for Russia and (although less so) for Ukraine. However, apart from being...

The external conditions facing the transition economies slightly improved on balance during the year 2004. The eight new EU member states of Central and Eastern Europe (NMS-8) recorded higher GDP growth (5% on average) than in the previous year, largely thanks to expanding domestic demand - in...