The World Economic Forum released its annual Global Competitiveness Report, which contains Global Competitiveness Index (GCI)—an assessment of competitiveness of 142 countries world-wide based on their macroeconomic situation, business environment, infrastructure and other relevant indicators. All EBRD and SEMED countries are covered, except for Belarus, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

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It may be essential for life and a resource many of us take for granted, but clean, running water is something that many in the world do not have. EBRD projects past and present have done a lot to address that shortcoming; in some of the Bank’s countries of operations, particularly those in Central Asia, our investments in infrastructure have improved the quality and security of water supplies for thousands of people.

But access to water remains a big issue. That’s why we’re focusing on water in a new film-making competition being run by TVE and part-sponsored by the EBRD. The Biomovies competition, now in its second year, invites proposals for short films. Shortlisted finalists receive a US$300 budget to produce a finished film and the overall winners get a larger cash prize. Winners may also see their work screened at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban in December 2011.

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A combination of severe financial market stress, anaemic second quarter growth in key advanced countries and the deepening euro zone crisis is materially impacting the EBRD region.

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One-company towns, towns where a single company accounts for a significant share of total employment and shapes the livelihoods of the people, are often associated with centrally planned economies.
But in fact they were common elsewhere. One-company towns had grown up in the USA towards the end of the 19th century, particularly in the industrial areas of the Mid-West, and at their peak were over 2,500 in number, accounting for up to 3% of the US population.
In the UK, the Cadbury company town of Bourneville and Lord Lever’s Port Sunlight were the best known examples.
A recent EBRD working paper takes a closer look at the phenomenon of one-company towns in Russia and comparative performance of enterprises located there by matching data on performance of Russian firms with the latest Census data on distribution of population.

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Martin Brown, University of St. Gallen  

Access to banking services is viewed as a key determinant of economic well-being for households, especially in low-income countries. Savings and credit products make it easier for households to align income and expenditure …

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An examination of the results of an in-house survey of credit information reporting systems (so-called credit registers or credit bureaus), their regulators, supervisors and customers (financial institutions using credit information reporting).

The survey was conducted in late 2010 in 15 EBRD countries of operations: Hungary, Poland, Slovak Rep., Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Serbia, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Rep. and Mongolia.

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Several countries in the EBRD region have introduced measures to deal with rising non-performance loans, known as NPLs.

Most recently the Hungarian government announced a complex mortgage debt relief programme that seeks to address the problem of high stock of FX mortgage loans (73% of total mortgage loans) and their high default rate, related particularly to loans denominated in Swiss Franc (90% of total FX loans). It provides for a significant temporary relief to borrowers at the expense of banks, but likely delays the day of ‘reckoning’ for final burden sharing between the government and the banks in 2015.

While the programme’s short term direct fiscal costs are likely to be small, there are also indirect costs, including an open-ended interest rate subsidy offer and quasi-fiscal costs to be borne by the new asset management company. The longer term costs, including the costs of a potential bail-out if the forint exchange rate remains close to present levels or even depreciates will have to be re-assessed closer to 2015. Moral hazard risks for households are significant; those for banks will depend on the final burden-sharing arrangement in 2015.

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On the day of the EBRD and Women for Women ‘s one day conference on the practical implications of recent experimental research on women and economic development, Women for Women have interviewed Seida Saric, Country Director for Bosnia and Herzegovina, for the EBRD’s blog.

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The Vienna Initiative, a framework for coordinated crisis management between EU-based cross-border bank groups in emerging Europe co-founded by the EBRD in 2009, has now reached a new phase. It has moved out of crisis management and resolution, and in to into crisis prevention. The new phase has been called Vienna Plus.

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With exceptions, the crisis led to a significant drop in employment in most EBRD countries of operation (COOs) through early 2010.

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