Economic expectations for Central and Eastern Europe including Turkey (CEE region) have deteriorated in April2016. In the current survey, the ZEW-Erste Group Bank Economic Sentiment Indicator for the CEE region has decreased by 13.1 points to a level of minus 8.4 points. Among the individual countries, the indicators for the Czech Republic (down by 16.0 points) and Hungary (down by 12.8 points) have seen the largest decreases.

The ZEW-Erste Group Bank Economic Sentiment Indicator for Central and Eastern Europe reflects financial market experts’ expectations for the CEE region on a six-month time horizon. The indicator has been compiled on a monthly basis together with further financial market data by the Mannheim Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) with the support of Erste Group Bank, Vienna, since 2007.

Information concerning further indicators for the CEE region, the Eurozone, the individual CEE countries covered by the analysis, and Austria can be found in the table at the bottom of the press release. The answers of all survey participants are taken into account for the calculation of the indicators for the CEE region, the Eurozone, and Turkey. The answers of the Turkish survey participants are not incorporated into the calculation of the indicators for individual CEE countries and Austria, because their high participation share in the survey could cause significant biases in the survey results.

For further information please contact:
Zwetelina Iliewa, Phone +49 (0)621/1235-346, E-mail iliewa@zew.de

Survey Procedure and Methodology

The Financial Market Survey CEE is a survey carried out among financial market experts by the Mannheim Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) and Erste Group

Bank AG, Vienna. The target of this survey is to develop indicators describing economic conditions in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) as well as in Austria.

The CEE region observed  in the survey  consists of Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and, since October 2010, Turkey.

Financial experts are surveyed about their assessment of the current business situation, the medium-term prospects of the respective economies and their expectations as to the development of the inflation rate, the short- and long-term interest rates, exchange rates and stock prices on a six-month time horizon. The analysts’ assessments reflect the qualitative direction of the estimated changes.

The Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)
ZEW is one of Germany’s leading economic research institutes and enjoys a strong reputation throughout

Europe. The institute works in the field of frontier empirical research in economics and maintains important scientific data bases, e.g. the Mannheim Innovation Panel (MIP) and the ZEW Start-up Panel.

ZEW is integrated into an extensive international network of universities and research institutions. ZEW’s key objectives are to conduct excellent economic research, provide science-based economic policy advice and transfer knowledge. ZEW was founded in 1991 and employs a staff of approximately 190, two thirds of whom are researchers.

Research at ZEW:

Labour Markets, Human Resources and Social Policy; Industrial Economics and International Management; Information and Communication Technologies; International Finance and Financial Management; Environmental and Resource Economics, Environmental Management; Corporate Taxation and Public Finance; International Distribution and Redistribution; Competition and Regulation

www.zew.de / www.zew.eu