Global News Journal

Location still counts in central and eastern Europe

Poles and Czechs, their economies still relatively robust  despite global recession, are up in arms about what they see as international investors’ tendency to tar them with the same brush as their more troubled neighbours such as Hungary, Ukraine and Latvia.

But if history is any guide, investors are unlikely to be impressed, at least in the shorter term.

Poland’s zloty has fallen more than debt-ridden Hungary’s forint since last summer, even though Budapest had to negotiate an emergency IMF-led bailout, while the Czech crown is also down
some 16 percent from its 2008 highs.

But at an EU summit last weekend, Polish and Czech leaders refused to back a Hungarian appeal for a 180-billion-euro region-wide bailout, saying they did not need such help.