By Matthias Reith and Gunter Deuber, RBI | While Austria opted as one of the first countries in Western Europe for a hard lockdown in spring, it was not a “first mover” in the second wave of lockdowns. And both subjects have a connection with each other, and this is exactly where the problem lies. […]
By Gunter Deuber, RBI Vienna, Dorota Strauch, RBI in Poland, Zoltan Török, Head of Research at Raiffeisen Bank in Hungary and Zrinka Zivkovic Matijevic, Head of Research at Raiffeisen Bank in Croatia | The COVID-19 crisis is certainly a watershed event. After the deep 2020 economic slump, it could take until 2021 or 2022 for […]
By Gunter Deuber and Ruslan Gadeev, RBI | We are happy to announce that the 2020 edition of our regular flagship publication CEE Banking Sector Report – this time around completed under uneasy conditions of the COVID-19, economic lockdowns and home-office working – is now available. As always, this report builds on our deep local […]
By Jörg Bayer and Gunter Deuber, RBI Vienna | The green transformation in the financial world can no longer be stopped, and this is especially true in Europe, where the EU Commission and the ECB are now joining forces at the highest level to accelerate the green transformation, especially in fixed income markets; the latter […]
By Matthias Reith, RBI | As in most if not all other countries, also in Austria the lockdown and the subsequent easing of restrictions are the major drivers of business cycle dynamics since March. On March 16th, earlier than most other Western European countries, Austria implemented a complete lockdown, especially in the consumer-related service sectors, […]
By Michal Kustra, RCM | Michal Kustra, Member of the Management Board of Raiffeisen Capital Management and responsible for Sales in Italy and CEE as well as for the Center of Competence CEE, shares with us his four main factors how to make an impact by responsible banking. Sustainable investment is the fastest growing segment in […]
By Olga Zhegulo, Priorbank, Ruslan Gadeev and Andreas Schwabe, RBI | Ongoing political protests in the aftermath of presidential elections on 9th August 2020 put a global spotlight on the Republic of Belarus, the country sandwiched between Russia, Ukraine and the eastern flank of the European Union. Ruled […]
By Sebastian Petric, RBI Purposeful European crisis management was key for the recovery of the EUR versus the USD. That being said, optimism with respect to the EUR and the EU crisis response may hit a ceiling from a mid-term perspective. Sebastian Petric, CFA sheds light on this and other crucial drivers of EUR/USD and […]
By Gunter Deuber, RBI “Do not fight the Fed” is considered a core motto on international financial markets and among professional market observers. In the current crisis, this applies equally to the ECB. The ECB’s action is currently seen by financial market players as sufficiently decisive and timely (e.g. rapid announcement of the flexible PEPP […]
By Gunter Deuber, RBI From the perspective of the CE/SEE region, there are currently some positive aspects emerging from the rather swift and joint economic policy response to the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis. Overall, the EU is making available some 5-6% of GDP as an anti-cyclical crisis response. For comparison: Joint EU economic policy efforts in […]
By Gunter Deuber, RBI, Zrinka Zivkovic Matijevic, Raiffeisenbank Croatia and Emil Kalchev, Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria Finally, the accession of Bulgaria and Croatia to ERM II and ECB-led Banking Union was completed last week. The local community is happy to finally belong more to the core Europe. At the EU […]
By Gunter Deuber and Casper Engelen, RBI In the last weeks, we have reported the daily number of infections rising in Bosnia and plateauing in Poland on this blog. Unfortunately, these uninspiring developments are now mirrored in many other CEE countries. This upsurge might threaten previous successes […]