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"I personally believe that central and eastern Europe will stay the most attractive growth market in the whole of Europe and that in a couple of years’ time, we will look back at this crisis as a spot in history" Herbert Stepic, Raiffeisen International |
Stepic says: "I personally believe that central and eastern Europe will stay the most attractive growth market in the whole of Europe and that in a couple of years’ time, we will look back at this crisis as a spot in history." While acknowledging that economic growth levels in the region will be lower than in the pre-credit crunch era – no bad thing, he argues, given the dangers of economic overheating – he still believes that so-called New Europe will continue to outperform the soi-disant Old Europe by some margin. "Central and eastern Europe still offers a number of key advantages versus the EU15 economies," says Stepic, citing such features as low labour costs, high educational standards and rising productivity gains. What’s more, he adds, the investment case for central and eastern European has been further bolstered by attractive, low tax regimes for both corporates and private individuals.