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Austrian Far-Right Victory Will Energise Central European Nationalists
30 September 2024
The V4 countries are scrambling to respond to the COVID-19 with social and economic measures. At the same time, a court sentence in Slovakia is a cause for optimism while other verdicts need our attention and support.
With GDP contractions and recession difficult to avoid in 2020, most of the Visegrad Group (V4) countries have resorted to economic stimulus measures to offset the sharp crisis. In the case of Poland, a National Bank survey showed an expected GDP drop of 2.6 per cent this year and a healthy recovery in the next year – if the COVID-19 pandemic can be contained. Negative GDP rates are forecasted across the region, for instance in Czechia, with a notable risk of currency volatility.
The extent of a recession will largely depend on the duration of social measures taken to reduce the spread of the virus as well as the size of the stimulus packages prepared at the national level.