July 11 (SeeNews) - Following the United Kingdom's vote to leave the the European Union, the bloc's enlargement is no longer a fast selling item and talks with EU candidates from Southeast Europe (SEE) are unlikely to be closed until 2020, Raiffeisen Bank International analysts said.
Although the impact of Brexit on SEE will be more political than economic, risk aversion are set to prevail, meaning that interest rates and government bond yields will stay at their historical lows for a longer period of time, the bank analysts said on Friday in an analysis.
EU formally opened accession talks with Serbia in January 2014, while Bosnia submitted an EU membership application in February this year.
Elsewhere in Southeast Europe, Macedonia was granted an EU candidate status in December 2005 but is still waiting for a date to start membership negotiations. Four other countries in the region - Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia - are EU members.
The bank's 2016 GDP growth outlook for SEE of 3.2%, however, remains stable.
In Central Europe/SEE, the still declining prices in many countries combined with relatively high wage growth and increasing employment are pushing private consumption on a broad basis. As consumer prices are likely to remain at very low levels for longer than originally expected, the purchasing power of households should prove to be the determining factor in consumer spending in the coming quarters, the bank's research department concluded.
Britain decided to leave the EU on June 23, with 52% of the voters choosing leave and 48% stay.