It’s hard to believe how conditions have changed CEE, you’re acting a little bit deranged. Where once there were dreams of economic convergence We now have nightmares, of defaults and divergence. As growth turns to slowdown, and slowdown to recession I hesitate to look forward, for the likely depression. Ok, enough armchair poetry. Let’s get… [Read more]

Three days ago I stressed that the dissolution of Latvia’s four-party coalition government was looking more and more likely. Today, President Valdis Zatlers announced that he has accepted the resignation of the prime minister and his administration. With the economy in turmoil and now lacking a government, Latvia’s ailments are only surpassed by defunct state… [Read more]

Of the 32 sovereign states in the emerging Europe region, 19 maintain fixed pegs or heavily managed exchange rate regimes (eight others have floating currencies and five utilise the euro). Thus far, only five of the 19 have made significant devaluations despite a clear regional trend of capital outflows, slowing growth and rapidly declining export… [Read more]

Latvia is the newest victim of the credit crunch. This is not official. No formal application has been made for an IMF bail-out package, nor has it made the front pages of any major newspaper of record on the continent. That said, with the economy contracting by 4.2% in the third quarter (down from 10.1%… [Read more]