According to Raiffeisen Leasing International (RLI) managing
director Dieter Scheidl, the recovery of the Russian economy will
be a key factor in the CEE region’s return to health.
“If oil prices remain healthy,” said Scheidl, “there’s no
question that the Russian economy is strong enough to overcome the
situation. It’s just a question of when it will get ahead again,
and when it does so it will be vastly important to the whole region
as a driver.”
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RLI, the Raiffeisen banking group’s leasing network in the CEE
region, is looking ahead to a calmer second half to 2009, after the
beginning of the year hit all Austrian CEE leasing networks
hard.
Scheidl said that Ukraine, as well Southeastern European markets
such as Romania and Bulgaria, had been especially tough, due to an
“overheating” of industries such as construction. He also noted
that the road freight industry had suffered universally.
Nevertheless, Scheidl expected core CEE territories such as
Slovakia and the Czech Republic to recover relatively quickly on
their own, since they had not been heavily dependent on foreign
investment.
Fred Crawley
