March 9 (SeeNews) - Erste Bank said on Monday that it has decided to lower its economic growth forecast for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) by 0.3 pp to 2.6% in 2020 due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 in Europe.
"Due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 in Europe, we will revise our CEE growth forecast downward by around 0.3pp toward 2.6%, with country-specific revisions going from around 0.3pp in the cases of Czechia, Hungary and Poland to as much as 0.5pp in Romania or even above in the case of Croatia," Erste said in a research report.
According to Erste analysts, industrial output growth releases are not likely to have been impacted by the coronavirus yet. However, even without its impact, contraction is expected in Romania and Czechia, they added.
"If the spread of the new Coronavirus is not contained in the foreseeable future, we could see further decreases in global economic activity that could translate into an even bigger slowdown of the growth in CEE," Erste warned in another report published on March 5.