VIENNA, Nov. 9 (Xinhua) -- An Austrian research institute on Thursday increased its GDP growth forecast for all Central and Eastern European (CEE) EU member states.
Trade balances in nations in the region have improved, and many of them are also reporting current account surpluses, the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw) said in its latest forecast.
In looking at GDP growth developments in the wider region, the wiiw splits the Central, Eastern and Southern European (CESEE) region into three sub-regions, the EU-CEE nations, the Western Balkans, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) nations and Ukraine.
For EU-CEE nations, it forecasts an average GDP growth of close to 4 percent in the medium-term, while the anticipations for the Western Balkans and CIS nations and Ukraine are 3 percent and 2 percent respectively.
The institute also noted that the catching-up process of the EU-CEE countries with Western Europe is again underway and at a quicker pace than previously expected, but pointed out that the convergence in terms of per-capita GDP levels will be a slow process.
Even advanced EU-CEE countries like Poland and Hungary will not manage to reach the 80 percent mark of average EU-28 wealth levels over the next decade, the institute added.
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