EES Online-Seminar, July 14, 2020

"Coronavirus (COVID-19): SME policy responses with a special focus on
Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)".

Before the corona crisis, growth of 3.2 percent was forecast for 2020 in the Central and Eastern European countries, and thus significantly higher than in the Euro Zone. In 2017, 2018 and 2019, these countries even reported GDP growth of 4.6, 4.3 and 3.6 percent respectively.

Consumption, public and private investment have now also collapsed in the CEE countries in the wake of the Corona crisis. Negative growth rates are forecast for the CEE countries this year, as well as for the entire Euro Zone and the EU-27.

What are the strategies of these countries? Are the sharply rising growth rates now hoped for in 2021 realistic or is there a threat of the economies drifting apart? What can we learn from this?

These and other topics were discussed on 14 July