Central Europe picking up, Russia still in the doldrums

The slowdown in Emerging Europe appears to have bottomed out in recent months and there are tentative signs of a turnaround in regional growth. At a country level though, it’s actually been a disappointing few months for the region’s two biggest economies. The largest, Russia, has yet to show any signs of recovery and, although growth in Turkey seems to have picked up a bit in Q2, the tightening of monetary conditions over the past month means that Q3 promises to be weaker. Better news has come from Central Europe, where it looks like Poland and Hungary may have turned the corner in Q2, while the worst of the slowdown could now be over for the Czech Republic and Slovakia.