The crisis as a wake-up call
This post argues that the outbreak of the sub-prime mortgage crisis prompted banks to screen and monitor their corporate borrowers more carefully. This “wake-up call” was particularly strong for relatively opaque loans. It already materialised before the Lehman Brothers collapse…
Policy tightening at home and abroad weighs on short-term growth prospects, but should help Emerging Europe in the longer term
Authors: Franziska Ohnsorge, Piroska M Nagy, Peter Sanfey
We’ve just published our latest update on Emerging Europe and Central Asia’s economic outlook which indicates that the recovery in the transition economies is progressing with important exceptions, and highlights the key…
EBRD's Annual Meeting in Zagreb
More than 2,000 people from all over the world are arriving in Zagreb, Croatia as the EBRD’s 19th Annual Meeting (AM) and Business Forum gets under way.
Participants will be able to assess the latest political, economic and…
EBRD launches Transition Report 2009
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The road to a fragile recovery
The EBRD has released its latest economic forecasts. Signs of positive growth in the third quarter suggest the recession is bottoming out in much of the EBRD region - but any upturn in 2010 is likely to be fragile and patchy.…
Kazakhstan's industrial policy: between pipedream and pipelines?
Can something good come out of the crisis? Perhaps. Kazakhstan – battered by a sudden stop in bank funding and a lower oil price – recently announced updated industrialisation plans that seem more realistic than earlier versions. The stated goal…
In defense of foreign banks
‘Banker’ has recently become somewhat of a dirty word and ‘foreign banker’ a most reviled sub-species. Over the last months foreign banks have, amongst other things, been accused of abandoning some of the emerging markets that have contributed so much…
The EBRD's new growth forecasts: "bearish", or turning point?
Following the release of our latest growth forecasts for the EBRD countries of operations on Thursday, Reuters reported that emerging European currencies had retreated on “bearish EBRD forecasts.”
As the creators of these forecasts, we found this both…
BIS data on cross-border flows – a closer look
Authors: Piroska Nagy (-7149) and Stephan Knobloch (-7065), 5 May 2009.
New BIS data for the last quarter of 2008 show that BIS-reporting banks significantly reduced their asset holdings across major regions of the world. While in absolute terms most…
The crisis has changed the EBRD
The debates among the G20 leaders about global architecture and the crisis response of the international institutions may seem abstract and removed from the concerns of most people. But the discussions are very real to those of us working in…




