March 17 (SeeNews) - Erste Bank said it has decided to further lower its economic growth forecast for Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in 2020 to 2.4%, from 2.6% predicted a few days ago, as the rapid spread of the coronavirus disease could bring the Eurozone to the brink of recession.
"Macroeconomic data releases will be overshadowed by news of the coronavirus spread. Given the broad preventive measures, the negative impact from potential disruption of production, but more importantly from the lockdown in the service sector will weigh further on the economic outlook in the region," Erste analysts said in a research report on Monday.
"A scenario of the Eurozone in recession has become increasingly likely, and thus we are adjusting our growth forecast accordingly and do not exclude seeing economic growth in the red in some CEE countries."
As of March 13, Erste analysts predicted Romania's GDP will grow by just 2% in 2020, while for Croatia they forecast economic growth of 0.5%. Serbia's economy is expected to grow by 3% in 2020, while Slovenia's GDP growth is forecast at 2.7%.