GPF Team

Greece’s finances, alternative currencies in Italy, the U.K.’s credit rating

Sept. 29, 2017 Catalonia’s referendum is an existential threat to Spain as we know it.

Sept. 28, 2017

Sept. 29, 2017 Eastern Europe has exhibited some impressive growth rates over the past decade.

But despite making up roughly 20 percent of the total population of the EU, the region accounts for only about 7.4 percent of the EU’s gross domestic product. There are many factors that explain why, but among the most important is that these countries spent decades behind the Soviet Union’s Iron Curtain. That Eastern Europe makes up only 7.4 percent of the EU’s GDP is not an indictment of its recent economic performance; it is an indicator of just how much of a head start the West had over the East.

But this lack of development has been in some ways a blessing for Eastern European countries. These countries have an abundance of skilled and cheap labor, which has fueled much of the economic activity in the region. For example, in the 1990s and 2000s, as German manufacturers were trying to make their exports more competitive, they found countries on their doorstep – particularly the Visegrad Four countries (Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic) – with low labor costs, favorable tax environments, and a productive and educated workforce.

Russia’s economic competitiveness, Iraqi Kurds vote for independence, separatists back Catalan referendum

Sept. 28, 2017 The region is taking advantage of its geographic location, which was once its downfall.