Dariusz Rosati, member of the monetary policy council of the central bank, today presented his plan for the transformation of the new Europe at the regional economic forum at Krynica Zdrój in southern Poland. He notes the huge differences in development and points to the fact that Belarus, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are still trying to maintain the old order.
The report divides the new Europe, which includes the Asian countries of the former USSR, into three groups. It groups the radical reformers, the weak reformers and the non reformers. Poland belongs to the first group alongside the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Reforms are considered to be having a good deal of success in these countries. The second group unfortunately contains most countries in the region and here often reforms have been reformed back into the old system. Belarus, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have only undertaken the most cosmetic of changes and no transformation of any consequence has begun.
Reform has it is benefits. Poland managed to attract over USD41m in investments in the 1990s, more than double that of Russia, a country with well over three times the population. Poland is the leader with GDP increases of 34 percent since the collapse of socialism.
However the report also contains warnings. It believes the current economic state of central Europe is not the best. All countries have a high budget deficit, poor current account balance and weak growth.