Staff of Reuters 2 minutes ReadFILE PHOTO: International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva speaks at the International Monetary Finance Committee (IMFC) closing news conference on October 19, 2019, in Washington, D.C., during the IMF and World Bank’s 2019 Annual Meetings of Finance Ministers and Bank Governors. Mike Theiler/Reuters SOFIA, Bulgaria (Reuters) – In the coming years, the economies of Central and Eastern Europe will develop faster than those of Western Europe, according to International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva. She told a Three Seas Initiative meeting that the countries’ total GDP should return to levels observed before the COVID-19 pandemic this year. The initiative brings together 12 European Union member states, mostly from central and eastern Europe and the Baltics. “We expect the region to reach its 2019 GDP level in 2021, much ahead of many nations around the world,” she said in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital. The Baltic, Adriatic, and Black Seas, which border the region, are the inspiration for the Three Seas Initiative. Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia are all included in this group. The summit’s goal is to strengthen economic, energy, transportation, and digital linkages. During the epidemic, Georgieva said, the economy of the nations in the group dropped by roughly 4% on average last year, around half the level seen in Western Europe. Between now and 2025, she expects yearly economic growth in the Three Seas Initiative countries to be around 1.2 percent greater than in its western neighbors. Tsvetelia Tsolova contributed reporting, with Doina Chiacu in Washington contributing additional reporting. Jason Hovet wrote the story, and Catherine Evans and Timothy Heritage edited it./n
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