Eastern Europe likely to weather global trade tensions: Report
VIENNA, 1st May, 2025 (WAM) — Despite global trade tensions, Eastern Europe appears positioned to withstand the economic headwinds, according to the latest spring forecast from the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw).
The report, covering 23 countries across Central, East and Southeast Europe, shows that most economies in the region—including EU member states—will maintain robust growth throughout 2025, even as the euro area struggles.
“The direct trade flows between those countries and the US are anyway low, and the collateral damage caused by their close ties with the heavily export-dependent German industry is also likely to remain manageable,” says Richard Grieveson, deputy director of wiiw and lead author of the spring forecast.
“As in previous cases where the region has been hit by negative external shocks, those countries with larger domestic markets—most notably Poland—will be better able to absorb the negative impact and are likely once again to prove resilient.”
For 2025, analysts at wiiw forecast average growth of 2.5 percent for the EU members in the region, which represents a modest downward revision of 0.3 percentage points compared to their winter forecast. Looking ahead to 2026, growth should tick up slightly to 2.8 percent.
