IMF wants stimulus for CEE

Prompted by Poland’s listless growth and recessions in Hungary and the Czech Republic, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommended short-term stimulus policies for much of Central Europe in May, according to The Wall Street Journal Europe. After vigorous growth in the 2000s, Poland has stagnated in 2013 and had only 0.1% growth in the first quarter.

"For an economy that has tended to grow by about 4% a year for the last decade, a slowdown to 1% or lower is quasi-stagnation to say the least," said Marek Belka, head of the Polish National Bank (Reuters).

Both the Czech Republic and Hungary have been in recession for more than a year, according to the IMF. All three countries have suffered from dwindling trade because of slack demand, according to Masanori Yoshida, leader of the IMF’s Czech mission.