April 22, 2010 - 10:00

The Brookings Institution

Invites you to a Roundtable Discussion

Turmoil at Twenty: Recession, Recovery and Reform in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union (2010)

A discussion with authors

Pradeep Mitra, Marcelo Selowsky and Juan Zalduendo

When:
Thursday April 22, 2010
10:00am - 11:30am

Where:
The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington, D.C.
Kresge Room

As a result of the global financial and economic crisis, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union are experiencing the greatest contraction among all emerging and developing economy regions and are expected to see the weakest recovery in output. Their commitment since the 1990s to open trade and financial integration as part of the transition from planned to market economies has brought many gains, but a combination of the recent large global imbalances and policy weaknesses in a number of countries have made them vulnerable to the crisis.

The global recession is expected to be deeper and more protracted than any in recent memory and will test the international community's commitment to both the middle income countries of emerging Europe as well as the poorest countries of the former Soviet Union. Recovery from the crisis will require domestic policy reform and coordinated, sustained international collective action.

Please join us for a discussion with World Bank experts, and authors of a new book on the economic trajectory of the Central and Eastern European and former Soviet states, Pradeep Mitra, Marcelo Selowsky and Juan Zalduendoon. The discussion will take place on Thursday April 22, from 10:00am - 11:30am in the Kresge room at Brookings.

Please RSVP to Carey Nickels at cnickels@brookings.edu by noon on April 20.