All forecasts for transition countries – the 29 EBRD countries of operation – since mid-2008 have been repeatedly downgraded. The latest forecasts (May 2009) envisage an average income decline of 5 per cent in 2009 and only a small recovery of 1.4 per cent in 2010; performance is very diverse.In...

Countries unable or unwilling to join a Monetary Union can partly replicate membership effects through either a Currency Board or formal replacement of the domestic currency by the currency of the Union. Schemes of this kind have been introduced recently in Transition Economies. The net balance...