Postcard from Davos

By: Anthony Williams Head of Media Relations

An EBRD delegation took to the Swiss Alps this week for the traditional World Economic Forum in Davos. An annual get-together of the great and the good, it’s the sort of place where you can’t walk more than 50 yards without spotting a Nobel laureate, a prime minister or another G8 central bank governor.

London Mayor Boris Johnson was a draw for a lot of the UK press. German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the meeting with a speech that made clear she was determined to work towards a resolution of the eurozone crisis, but financier George Soros issued a stark warning about the dangers of too much austerity.

One senior UK editor said he had been told by his London desk that the mood in Davos was more optimistic than expected. But that wasn’t his own impression in the snow-laden streets of the Swiss ski resort.

It had stopped snowing by the time the EBRD delegation arrived but WEF founder Klaus Schwab had said earlier that he had not witnessed so much snow in the run-up to this year’s event since the Forum was set up more than four decades ago.

EBRD President Mirow’s meetings included a discussion with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, which received wide press coverage in the Ukrainian media. On Thursday he participated in a panel discussion looking at the outlook for the “political, social and economic landscape for Russia in 2012″ before heading for a series of bilateral meetings with senior representatives of shareholder countries, key players in our countries of operations and leaders of other international organisations.

In meetings with the media, both President Mirow and Chief Economist Erik Berglof outlined the risks to growth in eastern Europe from a failure to deal with the crisis in the west. They also outlined the coordination measures being undertaken by the EBRD and others to help deal with the impact of western bank deleveraging in the region.

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