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Financial markets in the region of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have appeared to be resilient in an environment of geopolitical instability, with the EU-Russia sanctions having almost no direct effect on them, analysts of Erste Group have stated in their outlook for 2015.
The reduction in demand in Ukraine and Russia has hampered the region's overall exports by around 1 percentage point, but it hasn' t had any visible effect on the growth dynamics of CEE countries.
"If the oil prices remain at the current level for a longer time, it will contribute towards boosting the local purchasing power and domestic demand, which will have a positive impact on the global economic growth," pointed out Fritz Mostboeck, head of Erste Group Research.
According to Mostboeck, a good mix of revived domestic demand and increased investments will represent the main pulling forces of growth for CEE economies in 2015. "Overall, CEE economies are to grow by 2.5 percent in 2015 on average, which is twice as fast as the 1.1 percent expected for eurozone," states Mostboeck.
With a GDP growth of 3.1 percent in 2015, Poland should remain the fastest growing economy in CEE for the fifth consecutive year. Slovakia is expected to grow by 2.5 percent, the Czech Republic by 2.4 percent, and Hungary by 2.3 percent of GDP in 2015.
