There are encouraging signs that the authorities in Central Europe have brought the virus under control and policymakers are slowly starting to ease lockdown measures, which will support a recovery in activity. It's a different story in Russia where the number of new infections is showing no sign of slowing and the government has extended its lockdown. Despite these differences, no economy will escape a collapse in output in Q2 and there is growing evidence that the hit to regional GDP this year will be on a similar scale to the economic fallout which followed the collapse of communism in the early 1990s.
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