VIENNA (Reuters) – International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Monday she hoped for a renewed transparency drive among governments in central and eastern Europe in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.
“I hope to see in central and eastern Europe a renewed drive towards strong policies and government transparency for the future,” Georgieva said at an Austrian economic forum, which she joined online. The region had done well in building fiscal discipline and most of the countries were in a good position to face the crisis, she said.
However, governments will have to redirect financial support more carefully than in the first round of emergency help and not stop it as an abrupt end could lead to a “tripling of bankruptcies among small and medium-sized enterprises” in the region.
(Reporting by Kirsti Knolle; editing by Thomas Seythal)
