Page 9 - bne IntelliNews Country Report: Belarus Dec17

upward revision of 0.2 percentage points on the May forecast. Notwithstanding this acceleration, the average growth in the region is expected to remain slightly below that of emerging markets elsewhere with comparable per capita incomes.
Eastern Europe
While the economies of Central Europe are reaping the benefits of over two decades of reforms and institution building to reach a critical mass, those of Eastern Europe are doing less well, stymied as they are by the need to make deep structural reforms.
Russia remains an “investment node” for most of the region and especially for the countries to the south and east of it. Russia’s fate has a direct impact on remittances sent home by migrant workers and hence the economies of some of the smaller and poorer countries.
Remittances from Russia to Central Asia, Moldova and the Caucasus stabilised in US dollar terms towards end-2016 as the Russian economy returned to growth and the ruble appreciated in line with oil prices. Remittances rebounded by 21% y/y in the first half of 2017 but remained around 50% of the value recorded four years earlier. In local currency terms, remittances are only 9 percentage points below their peak levels of 2013 reflecting cumulative depreciations in recipient countries in recent years.
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9 BELARUS Country Report December 2017 www.intellinews.com