Central and Eastern Europe’s tight integration with western European economies together with local measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to significant output losses in 2020, Scope Ratings GmbH says in a recent report.
As it notes, with the euro area economy is set to contract by about -6.5% in 2020 under a baseline scenario (and -11.5% in a severe scenario), EU-member central and eastern Europe (CEE) countries will also slide into deep recession this year. In the rest of the emerging Europe region, Russia faces the additional impact from lower-for-longer oil prices. Turkey is vulnerable to the present global financial market turmoil. This relates to high volatility in FX and bond markets, which is likely to remain so over the duration of COVID-19 lockdowns, reflecting crisis impacts on global risk aversion. CDS and bond yield spreads in CEE widened markedly in mid-March before narrowing again in some cases more recently.
The magnitude of this year’s contraction will vary from country to country, but the economic impact of the pandemic alongside higher spending needs will sharply widen budget deficits and push levels of public debt back towards 2014 levels for most CEE governments.
How severe the impact turns out to be depends on how quickly and durably lockdowns in CEE economies as well as in western Europe can be relaxed, how effective the monetary and fiscal response to the crisis proves, and how fast an economic recovery takes hold later on in Q2 and through the second half of the year.
“The current situation is exceptional for CEE countries on four fronts,” says Giacomo Barisone, head of sovereign ratings at Scope. “The countries face: i) an unprecedented supply and demand shock to services sectors; ii) the adverse impact of global supply-chain disruptions and temporary suspensions of critical regional car industries; iii) renewed volatility in capital and currency markets; and iv) a collapse in oil prices, meaningful especially for Russia,” Barisone says.
Cyclical ratings implications of the crisis relate to risks linked to rising unemployment, corporate defaults, borrowing rates, and FX and banking sector risks. Structural implications correspond to monetary and fiscal policy responses being deployed – which raise debt ratios longer term and weaken private sector and government balance sheets.
In Scope’s baseline scenario, output in Poland and Hungary will contract by around 4% in 2020. In Poland, an important factor is the high share of temporary employment and self-employed, each around 17% of total employment, with these agents usually having limited cash buffers and are thus more exposed in times of economic distress. In contrast, Hungary has one of the highest exposures to global value chains among CEE countries, which constitutes a key risk in times of global economic turmoil.
Under the baseline scenario, Scope forecasts that output will contract by around 5.5% in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, given reliance on car industries, which account for 10% and 13% of GDP, respectively, and by almost 7% in Slovenia, which has high goods trade with a severely weakened Italian economy. Romania’s economy will contract by around 4.3%, with limited room for fiscal stimulus, given the country’s already elevated budget deficits. Bulgaria’s output will shrink by 4.6% this year. Croatia’s economy will be heavily hit – with a projected contraction of almost 7.5% in 2020 – given its dependence on travel and tourism, which contribute around a quarter of GDP (indirect activities linked to the sectors included). The small, open economies of the Baltic states will shrink by over 6% each.
For Russia, Scope has revised its baseline growth projection to around -5% in 2020, accounting for the recent oil price collapse, with Brent crude oil prices now trading around $20 a barrel even after OPEC+’s 10 mio barrels a day output cut decision. Scope anticipates a GDP contraction of 5% in 2020 in Turkey, revised down from an earlier estimate of around -1% in 2020. Turkey’s external sector weakness, including significant FX debt exposure and high external debt outstanding, increases its sensitivity to any extended period of global economic weakness and/or “risk-off” market conditions. Lastly, Georgia’s externally-exposed economy may contract over 3% in 2020.
Risks to baseline assumptions remain skewed to the downside as growth in CEE could be weaker if the economic shock from the COVID-19 crisis endures longer.