Eastern European economies struggle to regain foothold

As much of Western Europe begins to crawl out of recession, central and eastern European nations are slowly following, according to Deutsche Welle, HotNews informs. But some are finding it difficult to get their economies back on track. Analysts say many European countries have begun to slowly pull themselves out of the economic doldrums. Yet for some regions, such as the Baltics, recovery will likely be painfully slow.

Romania's economy shrank by 2.1 per cent in the second quarter. That's also an improvement on the first quarter contraction of 4.6 per cent. Bucharest, however, is facing huge budgetary constraints and is struggling to pay salaries and pensions. The government is forcing state employees to take 10 days of unpaid leave to trim the public deficit. Analysts say while it's too early to talk about a recovery, they do expect the decline to reverse in the next few months. Bulgaria also has to sharply cut the public deficit. The government has announced plans to cut public spending by 15 percent and to crack down on customs fraud to raise revenue.

Japan announced, on Monday, the egress from the longest recession period since the World War II. Japan is one of the biggest industrialised countries, which regressed from the crisis, after Germany and France. However, officially USA and UK are still under the pressure of the crisis.

Poland expects gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 1.0 percent this year. This would make it an incredible exception in the economic crisis. The International Monetary Fund, however, believes Poland's economy will likely shrink by 0.7 percent. Slovakia grew 2.2 percent in the second quarter, largely due to cash rebate programs in its main car export markets.

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