Central & Eastern Europe

Global Finance’s annual evaluation of the work of the world’s central bankers found some stellar performances, and some dismal ones. The toughest challenge for many: propping up falling prices.

Table Of Contents

In the race to attract foreign direct investment, countries are opening SEZs at a furious rate. Winnowing down the choices requires some serious due diligence.

CEE Regional Report
The unorthodox policies of prime minister Viktor Orbán may be controversial, but they’ve helped kick-start the country’s economy. Most of the other CEE nations are also mounting turnarounds..

Newsmakers | Ukraine
Tensions between Russia and Ukraine have run high since late 2013, when Russia resisted Ukrainian efforts to move out of the Russian sphere of influence and toward the West.

Regional Report | The Caucasus
Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, the nations that make up the region of the Caucasus, are all working hard to improve their business and economic climates, but with varying degrees of success.

Country Report | Turkey - Islamic Finance
Officials in Turkey have long declared their intentions to transform Istanbul into an international financial center. Islamic finance could be the key to making that goal a reality.

Capital Markets | Fixed Income
Hungary’s biggest financial scandal, which broke earlier this year, involved the alleged issuance of more than $500 million of phony bonds by Quaestor Financial Hrurira. The brokerage was one of three firms charged with fraud.

Regional Report | Central & Eastern Europe
Although geopolitical risks are still keeping executives awake at night, there has been a remarkable turnaround in some countries of the region, thanks in large part to structural reforms—implemented early and strongly. 

Country Report | Turkey
The country’s economy has stalled, just in time for a crucial parliamentary election.

Milestones | Cyprus
The enormous economic challenges faced by Greece have overshadowed a different kind of drama elsewhere in the Mediterranean.

Frontier Markets Report | Lithuania
Dogged by high unemployment, Lithuania is losing young people at an alarming rate.

Newsmakers | Estonia
Estonians handed victory to 35-year-old Taavi Rõivas and his center-right Reform Party in parliamentary elections on March 1.

At first glance, Central Asia’s banking sector looks like somewhere you just wouldn’t want to go.

Royal Bank Of Scotland plans to vastly scale back its Transaction Services business. It is a further sign of the challenging times faced by global transaction banks.

Newsmakers | Greece
Following political party Syriza’s triumph in the recent Greek elections, Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, faces the most critical match of his career.

Capital Markets | Corporate Debt
As Russian companies strive to cope with higher borrowing costs and a shortage of dollars and euros to repay foreign debt, emerging markets bonds are coming under increasing scrutiny by investors.
 

Newsmakers | Croatia
Despite the ceremonial nature of the Croatian presidency, Grabar-Kitaroviċ has denounced the government for “cold-hearted” economic policies and says Croatia’s economy is a national disgrace.

Q&A | Supply Chain Finance
Tomáš Hron, head of global transaction banking, UniCredit Bank, Czech Republic and Slovakia, on the limits of digitization in trade and the supply chain.

Milestones | European Union
Regulators had Web giants like Google and Apple in their sites when they framed a new value-added tax (VAT) regulation for businesses selling digital products into the European Union