Report on transformation: „Hard landing: Central & Eastern Europe facing the financial crisis".
The first event during this year's forum was presentation of a Report on Transformation" entitled „ Hard landing: Central & Eastern Europe facing the financial crisis". During the debate, PricewaterhouseCoopers will introduce its latest report about the consequences of the global financial crisis for our region. The report will unveil external and internal risks to development of the CEE economies, which a dozen or so months ago still enjoyed forecasts of continuing long-term growth. Does severe recession in the region of Central and Eastern Europe have only a transient character? Is the trend of rapid growth likely to return once the global crisis ends?
High-flying, hard-landing
Aleksandra Fandrejewska, Rzeczpospolita
After twenty years, countries from the region still need reform
„Countries from Central and Eastern Europe should significantly cut the bureaucratic burdens and consequently reform their public finances because in their cases classic methods of counteracting the crisis such as financial programmes stimulating the economy or lowering taxes do not work,” thinks professor Witold Orłowski, chief economist at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He is co-author of a report on transformation in the region entitled 'Hard landing', which the consulting company presented at the Forum in Krynica. It describes the present economic situation in 15 countries in the region and the reasons why growth has been halted there.
According to the report Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia, Slovakia and Slovenia are the pillars of the region and they are dealing best with the economic crisis. „We were lucky that we did not have enough time to make many mistakes, the crisis came to Poland before Poles became excessively indebted,” added professor Orłowski.
„In the years before the crisis, a new generation grew up, a generation which „did not know how to be afraid”, did not have proper modesty and distance from the reality,” added Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, former Prime Minister and CEO of the bank Pekao S.A. He also pointed out that while assessing the condition of our economy and public finances we sometimes use „dogmatic assumptions”. The flagship example is the constitutional provisions regarding safety programs referring to public debt. And Ryszard Petru, economist from BRE Bank, the third speaker who talked about the economic situation of the countries in the region, added that „In case of Poland, it is also important that the government did not make many mistakes.”
Rzeczpospolita
